
Class _lL5:i^ 



Book A 

CDEQUGHT DEPOSm 



CANTEEN ING OVERSEAS 

1917--1919 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

MEW YORK . BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON . BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA. Ltd*. 

TORONTO 



CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

1917--1919 



BY 

MARIAN BALDWIN 



Il3eto gork 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1920 

AU rights reserved 






COPYEIGHT, 1920, 

BT THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Set up and electrotyped. Published, June, 1920 



SEP 15 1320 

©CI,A576383 
^1 \ 



TO THE BOYS 
WHO NEVER CAME BACK 



This little record of work — which was priv- 
ilege ; of sacrifice — which was unself -conscious ; 
of Courage — which was a commonplace; and, 
most of all, of Beauty, which was just gallant en- 
durance of more than one dull job; — this rec- 
ord of what one Y. M. 0. A. Worker did in 
France, is especially moving to me, because I 
was with her part of the time, and watched the 
ideal of Service unfold and blossom in her char- 
acter. I am glad that her letters, telling so sim- 
ply of the gay splendor of those dark days in 
France, have been gathered together in this little 
book. 

Makgaret Deland. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I At Sea 1 

II Paris 10 

III Bordeaux 48 

IV Aix-les-Bains 64 

V The Lorraine Sector . . . . 96 

VI The Argonne 131 

VII The St. Mihiel Front .... 146 

VIII Verdun 170 

IX Germany 181 

Note: These are the original letters, except 
for insertion of names of places, persons, and a 
few other indications, which, because of the cen- 
sorship, had perforce to be omitted from the let- 
ters as mailed from Europe. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

^ A Eecollection Map Frontispiece 

FAOIXa 
PAGB 

I The " Y " at Bordeaux 54 

' At the Aix Railway Station 78 

Baccarat 110 

French Dugouts near Bemecourt . . . 154 

' The Prospect for a Canteen 174 

' The Festhalle at Coblenz 188 

' A " Y " Sightseeing Trip 194 



CANTEENING OVERSEAS 



CHAPTER I 

AT SEA 

On Board La Touraine, 

June 30th, 1917. 

Even now that we are out of sight of land, it 
seems impossible that I am actually off to France 
and, for the first time in my life, traveling alone. 
Everything has happened so quickly since the 
American Fund for French Wounded found an 
opening for me in Paris that I suppose I am still 
somewhat dazed and bewildered. The fact that 
I don't know what it will all be like and that I 
can't look ahead makes it easier to be happy and 
live in the present. Of course I have had a bit 
of a taste in New York of the work that the A. F. 
F. W. is doing but its Headquarters in Paris will 
be different in some ways I fancy. 

I can't get over how lucky I am to have this 
chance for I realize how few girls of my age are 
getting across, and I understood the grit and 
pluck which made you encourage me on my great 
adventure and send me along a path which has 
proved so dangerous of late. 

As we drifted down the river, in the sunset 



2 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

glow with two absurd tugs puffing alongside, I 
know that many eyes were moist and that the 
same thought was in all our minds. How many 
of this ship's company will see that sky-line 
again! It was very quiet, no one spoke much, 
and, little by little, the glow faded from the sky 
and one star after another appeared. I knew 
that you would be looking at those same stars 
down in Lakewood and that your thoughts and 
prayers were the same that filled my heart at that 
moment. Somehow distance does not separate, 
after all. 

We waited near the Statue of Liberty until 
midnight — a rumor had it that a " personage " 
was to come on board. This individual was 
shrouded in mystery until we put to sea when 
it was given out that the party which had clam- 
bered aboard in the night was none other than 
the Italian Mission. Our spirits rose at once 
for, what with Frank Sayre on the boat and these 
distinguished Italian gentlemen, we shall doubt- 
less be honored by a bigger convoy and so doubly 
safe. However, thus far we have but two de- 
stroyers following us. They can be seen dis- 
tinctly outlined against the horizon, one on each 
side, and seem to be the same somber gray which 
all ships are affecting in this war. A sailor in- 
formed me this morning that we weren't in much 
danger for the first four or five days but that 
after that I might see some excitement. Here's 
hoping ! 



AT SEA 3 

I have a small inside cabin and my room- 
mate is quite a character. She is a native of 
Haiti, voluble and very portly — has four large 
pieces of baggage in our tiny stateroom, wears a 
costume which resembles a Mother Hubbard and 
smokes countless thin cigarettes that smell like 
incense ! When I appeared, there didn't seem to 
be much room for me but, as she says, luckily I 
am small, and I was soon tucked into the upper 
berth with my belongings! She really isn't bad 
and after looking me over carefully told me that 
she didn't think we would fight and from that 
time has beamed upon me ! She is going over to 
join her son who has been fighting with the 
French since the beginning of the war but will 
never go back to the Front now, having lost some 
fingers off each hand. She is so thankful, she 
says, that he hasn't lost more than his fingers. 

La Touraine, July 3rd, 1917. 
I have been moved to the Captain's table and 
as nothing but French is spoken I have had to 
take the fatal plunge also and find my vocabulary 
sadly shrunken after three years. However, I 
can understand perfectly and, as you know, I am 
more of a success as a listener anyway. The con- 
versation is very worth while and I quite look 
forward to meal times. Frank Sayre is at our 
table, also Major and Mrs. Bert McCormick. 
The Major has been a member of the National 
Guard for years and went to Texas with his 



4 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

squadron. He is now on his way to join the 
A. E. F, His father was former Ambassador to 
Russia, as you know, and Major McCormick was 
over there as a guest of the Grand Duke and spent 
quite a lot of time on the Russian front, so, of 
course, he is absolutely up on that end of things. 

I have made friends with some of the Italian 
Mission, also a French Baron, a cavalry officer 
who has been out in Wyoming buying huge quan- 
tities of horses for the allied armies. Among 
the Italians, Signor Nitti seems to me the keenest 
and most interesting. He is a very loyal and 
patriotic person; he urged his son, who is only 
nineteen, to enlist as soon as Italy entered the 
war. From his portrait the son is a fine looking 
boy. As he has recently been wounded, Signor 
Nitti is in a fever of impatience to get to him. 

We have about a hundred and fifty ambulance 
men on board who are on their way to join the 
Field, or the Norton-Harjes Service, in France. 
Among them is a Buffalo Unit and we have 
found a lot of friends in common. There are also 
a number of very young lads going over to join 
the Lafayette Escadrille. They tell me that they 
couldn't get into the American Aviation owing to 
the very strict physical test. I like one of these 
boys especially, Billy Taller by name ; he is very 
charming and thoughtful and has kept me sup- 
plied with sweet butter, honey and other delica- 
cies which were showered upon him on the dock 
by kind friends. 



AT SEA 5 

Mrs. C, whom you introduced, seems very nice, 
but since I came to her rescue with the bath- 
steward she loves me like life. She needn't have 
bothered, for shortly after our joint conversa- 
tion on the subject of baths, she left her port-hole 
open by mistake and two tidal waves entered 
her' state-room one after the other. Mrs. C. 
emerged looking like a drowned rat!/ 

La Touraine, July 4th, 1917. 
We have run into a hot wave and, of course, I 
am perfectly happy although thankful for my 
thin clothes. Every one knows every one else 
now and we are having a wonderful time. I feel 
like the only girl at a house-party of almost two 
hundred men. All the other women on board are 
married and older with the exception of one very 
charming Quaker bride who is about my age. 
It's an interesting bunch for, of course, every one 
here is going abroad with some definite work in 
view which makes them more or less worth while. 
This morning we had a very moving meeting 
to celebrate the first Fourth since our country 
entered the war. Frank Say re and Major Mc- 
Cormick both spoke exceedingly well. Every one 
was much stirred and sobered by the realization 
of the magnitude of the job ahead. 

On account of the intense heat, Mrs. C. and I, 
accompanied by our life preservers, have been 
sleeping on deck. We each have a mattress and 
a steamer rug spread out and find this method of 



6 CANTEENING OVEESEAS 

spending the night infinitely superior to our 
sutfoeating little cabins. Hosts of people have 
followed our example. At about 4 :30 a. m., the 
sailors begin to appear with theii' pails and mops 
and then the deck takes on a strange appearance ; 
pajama clad figures walking nonchalantly about ! 

La Touraine, July 5th, 1917. 

Every day a little newspaper is printed on 
board. The news comes by wireless. The sheet 
appears about 11 a. m. To-day we are rejoicing 
over the fact that the Russians have resumed 
fighting on the southwestern Front — it is so 
vital just now that they should hold on, it takes 
one's breath away to contemplate what would 
happen if they didn't. 

This letter, I know, is most messy but I carry 
it around all day with me and it takes on the 
atmosphere of the boat. 

To-morrow we shall have been gone a week and 
it seems perfectly incredible. I have had and am 
having such a good time that I haven't really 
been homesick yet, but I expect, when I get to 
Paris and start work, I shall have an awful dose 
of it. 

There are all kinds of rumors going about 
which seem to increase as we approach the war 
zone. The Captain won't open his mouth on the 
subject of submarines although there are sup- 
posed to be three pursuing us. All we know is 
that we change our course constantly and are 



AT SEA 7 

zig-zagging our way across the Atlantic. Our 
two destroyers turned back after we had been out 
two days and since then we have had no convoy 
whatever. Every one misses the sight of those 
two watchful gray forms on the horizon and since 
they disappeared we have felt a very wee dot on 
a very big ocean ! 

La Touraine, July 8th, 1917. 
Friday night we entered the war zone at seven 
o'clock but you would never know it. Aside 
from boat-drills and sleeping on deck people act 
as usual. The oflflcers on the boat are very par- 
ticular about the drills ; several times the alarm 
has sounded and we have been taught just what 
to do in case we are hit. It's very funny to see 
the people rush below for their valuables, strap- 
ping on their life preservers as they go (which 
we always have near at hand wherever we are — 
on deck or in the saloon). In about five min- 
utes we are lined up, divided into groups in 
front of our own particular life-boats which have 
been swung out over the sea ready to lower. 
Every one is checked off and each man is told 
what woman he is to save. (Great excitement 
at this point as no one of the men wants to save 
the lady detailed to him, but some one in another 
boat!) We all stand about looking too absurd 
and bumping into each other's life preservers on 
the crowded upper deck. Finally the signal is 
given which releases us, and we all file down 



8 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

again to take off the clumsy heavy jackets of 
safety and regale ourselves with various amuse- 
ments on the deck. 

Rumor has it that two ships have been sunk, 
one in the course ahead of where we were yester- 
day and the other about an hour behind us. No 
one knows how many lives were lost. Perhaps 
those three submarines were more fact than fic- 
tion after all. 

It is thought that we should make Bordeaux 
by Tuesday morning if all goes well and that the 
convoy which should have met us days ago will 
be with us to-night. 

This being Sunday, the boys on board are very 
much dressed up, that is to say they are wearing 
clean shirts and have their hair brushed! It's 
a perfect day, warm and cloudless, and I've been 
lying in the sun adding to my coat of tan. We 
all feel quite sad that the voyage is so nearly 
over — it has been such loads of fun and I shall 
hate saying good-by to every one. 

La Touraine, July 11th, 1917. 
Actually in sight of land and all danger past ! 
Last night was a great strain — Our convoy 
didn't find us till dawn. It was a wild night, 
with torrents of rain and a high wind. How our 
little boat pitched and tossed! No one was al- 
lowed below so we paced the deck all night. 
Finally the dawn came and the storm abated and 
we realized how fortunate we had been. Our 



AT SEA 9 

chances wouldn't have been nearly as good of 
slipping through the submarine ring with a 
brilliant moon to show us up. 

I am feeling wonderfully well; physically the 
trip has done me no end of good. We shall 
land soon now and in a few hours my cable will 
have reached you and your anxiety will be over. 
So ends the first lap of the journey. Now for 
the real venture. Thank God for the opportunity 
and for you unselfish ones at home. 



CHAPTER II 

PARIS 

En route from Bordeaux to Paris, 

July 18tli, 1917. 

On landing yesterday I went straight to the 
Hotel de France and it certainly was good to 
have room to turn around in: as for a bed 
with real springs I greeted it with enthus- 
iasm! Towards evening Frank and I took 
a long walk about the city. A port town 
always interests me and we saw it all at the 
loveliest time of day. The harbor was full of 
fishing smacks and small craft of all kinds and 
exquisite tones in the sails and rigging. The last 
rays of the sun cast a rosy hue over everything, 
making one think at once of Venice and the days 
before the war. Later we wandered through 
some of the oldest parts of Bordeaux and I really 
felt that I was abroad again ! The narrow wind- 
ing streets and cobblestones, with here and there 
an ancient facade or doorway and everywhere, in 
the poorest alleys, a bit of a vine or potted plant 
in the windows. How do they manage to make it 
all so picturesque and alluring? 

The women and the old men are doing every- 
thing and it is surprising to see the lady conduc- 

10 



PARIS 11 

tors. On this train they use women entirely, 
even in the dining car. The war hasn't robbed 
them of vivacity or their beautiful complexions 
and I believe they are even prettier in their simple 
black working clothes than before. 

We are at present passing through the famous 
vineyards and I have never seen the country look 
so beautiful. The crops seem in perfect condi- 
tion, thanks to the patient labor of these wonder- 
ful women, and the grain waves in profusion 
everywhere. I have longed for you at every 
turn, how you would enjoy it all. The poppies 
are in their prime and, as the train whirls by, 
they look like immense splashes of red — almost 
like stains of blood against the gold of the wheat. 

I have just come in from a very excellent meal 
in the dining car — the food was served promptly 
by two French girls of the peasant type and with 
a speed that was wonderful, the car holding over 
thirty persons. 

Paris, July 13th, 1917. 

I'm so thankful for a spot which I can call my 

own. Aunt T is wonderful, of course, had 

flowers, fruits, candy, etc., in my room and is 
proceeding to spoil me as usual. 

Mrs. Needham has already told me much about 
the work the American Fund for French 
Wounded is doing on this side. It seems that 
the greater part of its workers are being increas- 
ingly absorbed by the Red Cross and for that 



12 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

reason there are openings and I shall be able to 
step right in, which pleases me no end. The 
work will consist of packing, mostly. The sup- 
plies from the States are unpacked, sorted and 
divided among the hospitals all over France 
which the American Fund is supplying. My job 
will be packing the things into bales of burlap, 
sewing them up and marking them for shipment. 
The addresses are printed on the burlap with a 
large brush and I am more than thankful that I 
know how to print. Everything seems to come in 
handy in war-work. 

Paris is as beautiful as ever but one is not al- 
lowed to forget that it is war time, which is, of 
course, as it should be. For instance, two days 
a week no one is allowed meat; one day no tea 
or coffee, and one day no sweets. Naturally 
these rules are being made stricter all the time 
as the food gets scarcer. There is no hot water 
anywhere except Saturday and Sunday and, of 
course, the " war bread " which is a bit like our 
rye bread and really good. 

H6tel Lutetia, Paris, July 14th, 1917. 

Mrs. Needham has told me what is proper and 
has given me a list of restaurants where one can 
lunch safely with a man ! Just now I am going 
out a great deal, but in a day or two most of the 
boys will be gone. 

I started in work yesterday and adore it. Our 
headquarters are marvelously situated on the 



PARIS 13 

Champs Elysees and the packing rooms open on 
two sides and look out on the gardens surround- 
ing the Cafe des Ambassadeurs. Although I am 
on my feet continually, the work doesn't seem to 
tire me and you can imagine my joy at having 
a regular job which will keep me busy from morn- 
ing until night. 

Paris, July 16th, 1917. 
Last night I witnessed my first air raid and it 
was every bit as thrilling as anticipated. I was 
awakened out of a sound sleep by a chorus of 
the most gruesome sirens imaginable, that, com- 
bined with the noise of the fire engines rushing 
through the streets and the blowing of horns 
made it quite impossible to go back to sleep. 

Also at that moment Aunt T came to my door 

fully dressed and told me to put on my clothes in 
case it should prove to be a bad raid and wiser to 
descend under ground. After the first burst of 
alarms a deathly stillness fell upon the city, all 
the lights were switched off and we were left in 

the pitch dark. Aunt T and I hung out of 

my window and awaited developments. It was a 
night to dream of, absolutely clear and the sky 
a-glitter with a myriad of stars. It seemed in- 
credible that out of that vast stretch of beauty 
should come those death-dealing creatures on 
wings. However in a few moments we knew that 
the Boches had crossed our lines and were flying 
on Paris, for at once a dozen or so French pursuit 



14 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

planes put off and in a moment they could be seen 
dashing here and there across the heavens like 
so many fire-flies. These planes carry one light 
and when they swoop down rapidly, it looks ex- 
actly like a falling star. All at once the anti- 
air-craft guns began and in all my life I have 
never heard such a racket. I didn't believe there 
could be anything louder and then suddenly a 
bomb dropped and the deafening crash com- 
pletely obliterated for a second all other sounds. 
They say this morning that two enemy planes 
were over Paris and five bombs in all were 
dropped. The list of dead and wounded has not 
yet been published but it is a long one. The war 
has suddenly become a reality. 

Yesterday, Sunday, I lunched with Aunt T 

and Uncle J and later took a walk with Billy 

Tailer. He is here for a week before going off 
to his flying school at Avord. The danger in 
aviation is very great, much more so than any 
one in America realizes. The average life of an 
aviator at the front is six months. Bill has been 
telling me the most hair-raising tales ! It seems 
that any boy going into it has practically no 
chance at all unless he is wounded so severely 
that he can't go back to the Front. It all makes 
me perfectly sick. Billy is only twenty-three — 
the most boyish and appealing person you can 
Imagine. I simply cannot realize the danger he 
is going into. Surely it is incredible that such a 
buoyant personality could be se^criflced. 



PARIS 15 

Last night Uncle J took us over to " The 

Gilded Snail " for dinner and we ate the genuine 
article with a gusto which, on my part at least, 
was entirely put on. The prices here in Paris 
are fabulous and even the bare necessities of life 
seem like an extravagance. However the city 
itself never has been so fascinating. To a great 
extent it has lost the froth of other days and the 
real Paris stands out as never before. For the 
first time I see why it has been called the heart 
of this wonderful, indomitable country. But 
now it seems to represent in its atmosphere not 
only the heart but the soul of France. 

Its streets are no less gay ; most of the women 
are in black to be sure and yet soldiers from 
every Allied country in the world are now to be 
seen everywhere and the vivid colors of their 
uniforms brighten up the boulevards and gleam 
among the trees along the Champs Elys^es and in 
the Bois. Naturally the blesses are everywhere 
and on every side one sees one-armed and one- 
legged poilus, leading perhaps some camarade 
who has lost his sight. O there is much of the 
pathetic ! — and yet somehow the extraordinary 
spirit and indomitable will of these people is 
catching and one holds to any scrap of cheer with 
the greater tenacity, not knowing just when an- 
other bit of it will come one's way. The French 
have learned economy in the war — even to the' 
hoarding of sunshine. 

The thing that helps me most is the sight of 



16 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

our own soldiers in Paris. One meets tliem 
everywhere, khaki-clad groups strolling past the 
marvelous shops in the Eue de la Paix, with a 
very American nonchalance, or piloting some 
very petite and chic French mademoiselles 
through the parks or into one of the many res- 
taurants about the city. 

I don't think I should have had the face to come 
over here before our entry into the war. Those 
Americans who have been here since the begin- 
ning say that the situation grew very strained 
during the winter and while those numerous 
notes, were traveling back and forth between 
Washington and the German Government! 

Now, of course, that is all changed. Americans 
can at least hold up their heads and France with 
her generous heart forgets how long we were in 
coming in the joy of at last welcoming us to her 
shores. Our soldiers are being made much of 
but with their show of wealth they somewhat be- 
wilder the French people. Money is fairly 
thrown about by the advance guard of our A. E. 
F., the boys having no idea of the value of the 
francs which they carry in huge wads. To the 
poilu, who earns eight cents a day, the Sammie 
seems a veritable millionaire. 

Our American army headquarters and also 
the chief headquarters of the American Red Cross 
are at the Hotel Crillon. The space directly in 
front of the hotel on the Place de la Concorde 
is generally swarming with our soldiers. Long 



PARIS 17 

rows of khaki-colored military automobiles are 
drawn up along the curb. These are the first 
that have appeared in Paris and are looked upon 
with great interest and entire approval by the 
French population. In fact, each United States 
transport that arrives safely is reported with 
columns of enthusiastic comment in all the Paris 
papers. They only urge us to " hurry " ; and 
God grant that we will. 

Paris, July 18th, 1917. 

For the past few days I have been doing light 
carpentering at the Alcazar in the Champs 
Elys6es (our A. F. F. W. Headquarters are in 
the building which once was the Alcazar d'Ete, 
a great amusement hall). As most of our men 
went back on us and some of the cases had to be 
closed at once for shipment, I've been hammering 
and sawing until my lily-white hands are rough 
as a man's and a perfect sight! 

The weather has come off very warm and damp 
and to-day every one has felt more or less like a 
rag. However our working clothes are most com- 
fortable — little Dutch caps to keep the dust out 
of our hair and blue aprons made like smocks. 
I am already so much at home in the Alca- 
zar that I feel as though I had been bom 
here. 

If this is to catch the American mail I must 
close. I have such heaps to tell you and so little 
time that it is quite maddening. 



18 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

Hotel Vernet, Paris, 
July 22nd, 1917. 

The last week has been so fearfully crowded 
that I haven't been able to accomplish anything 
outside of my work, also I have taken on another 
job. 

Here at the Alcazar we work until 5 p. m. and 
after that we are free for the day. I was begin- 
ning to wonder how I could make my evenings 
more useful when this opening came. 

Early in the week at the end of a very hot and 
busy day, word was sent that they needed a few 
American girls in the new Y. M. C. A. canteen 
which is being opened for the Army and Navy 
at 31 Avenue Montaigne. The request was ur- 
gent, and, as no one else from the Alcazar was 
free to go, I told them that I'd come and help out, 
if only for a few hours. 

When I arrived I found that they were very 
short-handed indeed and would be grateful for 
a bit of help every day. I am therefore going to 
the canteen from 5 to 9 P. m. each evening and 
of course simply love it. In the first place I have 
the chance to work with our own soldiers, — a 
thing which I don't get in the A. F. F. W. — and 
then it fills in the evenings, and I don't feel such 
a slacker. 

The Y, M. C. A. Headquarters are situated in 
a stunning old building, the court-yard of which 
has been turned into a sort of tea garden. A 
small chalet has been built at the extreme end 



PARIS 19 

and this serves as kitchen and pantry in one. A 
huge counter extends across the front and is 
covered with large plates of sandwiches, cakes, 
etc. The rest of the court-yard is fenced off by 
greens and box, leaving a big space for numerous 
little green tables and chairs. Here the hungry 
mob congregates, and it is the job of the various 
girls to take their orders and serve them with the 
good things that are concocted in the little chalet- 
canteen. It has become most popular owing to 
the fact that ice cream, cake and other sweets 
are now practically impossible to get in Paris. 
The Y. M. C. A. gets all its supplies straight from 
America and we have the sugar and flour neces- 
sary for making the things which the boys love. 

Mrs. Teddy Roosevelt and Mrs. Verley are run- 
ning the place and in the past two days a girl 
that I knew at Farmington has turned up which 
makes it nice for me. 

Yesterday, Aunt T had Madame Migot 

and her son Roger to luncheon and we had an un- 
usually interesting time. You know her older 
son, Georges, was so badly wounded during the 
first year of the war that his back and legs are 
paralyzed and he will probably never walk again. 
Instead of lying around and bemoaming his fate 
he is doing most important head work for the gov- 
ernment. The younger son, Roger, is home now 
en permission and it was generous of his mother 
to share with us even an hour of his precious eight 
days at home. His expression shows much that 



20 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

he has been through and his life at the Front 
must be a veritable Hell. He lives by himself in 
what is left of a tiny hut just behind the firing 
line, and goes out day and night, no matter what 
the danger, to bring in the wounded. His hut is 
overrun with rats as big as kittens. He told me 
that the only company he has are three or four 
wild canaries. He found them as babies in their 
nest. The mother-bird vanished, so he took them 
home in his pocket and they have been with him 
ever since. They sing continually and when he 
comes back at night, he has only to whistle and 
they come to him flying, the well-trained little 
things! Naturally when there is fighting, he is 
in the trenches all day and then his rats and birds 
keep house by themselves. 

Sometimes at night he takes two helpers, and 
makes pilgrimages to all the cemeteries near at 
hand which have been torn up and mutilated by 
the Germans. He straightens the graves and 
puts up rude crosses where they have been shot 
away. In this way he has found the graves of 
many of his friends, whose families hadn't known 
where their sons were buried. Madame Migot 
just didn't take her eyes off him for one minute 
during luncheon. It must take superhuman 
strength and courage to let him go back to that 
ghastly place. 

These French women are simply marvelous. 
When their men are home on permission they 
put on a bold, cheerful front, and unless one looks 



PARIS 21 

at their eyes one would never know the cruci- 
fixion that is going on behind that calm, sweet ex- 
terior. When I see the pathetic wrecks that limp 
back from those trenches, I can understand a 
bit why some of these young girls wear the look 
of a woman of fifty. 

It seems as though I must stretch out a hand 
and snatch back the ones I love; and yet our 
country and its honor never seemed half so pre- 
cious as just now, or half so worth suffering and 
dying for. 

It is all so inspiring and so tiring ! All Ameri- 
cans have the same experience when they first 
come over and before they get a bit hardened to 
it all. The emotional strain is terrific. One is 
keyed to concert pitch all the time — till the 
mere sight of our khaki-clad boys marching 
through Paris on their way to camp, brings one to 
the verge of tears. There is so much color and 
experience crammed into each day that I can't 
begin to write of. The whole situation is col- 
ossal; it is simply impossible to express it in 
words. My letters sound childish and scrappy 
but I only get a chance to write a sentence or two 
at a time, so you must excuse them. 

I haven't presented any of the letters of intro- 
duction that you gave me. I am rushed and there 
isn't a soul but is so busy that even friendly calls 
have had to be abolished, as there is such a de- 
mand for every one's time. 

M. suggests in her last letter that I read Vic- 



22 CAKTEENING OVERSEAS 

tor Hugo and get myself into the atmosphere of 
Paris, I don't suppose any one realizes at home 
that the " atmosphere " has changed, and that 
what Victor Hugo depicted is past and over. 
I couldn't any more settle down now to the 
reading of classics, or go about seeing sights, 
than I could fly. One's surroundings cry out 
against that sort of thing, and the Great Present 
looms larger than all the rich centuries which 
make the Past of France. 

If we are to win this horrible war, every man, 
woman and child must concentrate on the Pres- 
ent and only stop in order to store up strength 
for the continuation of endeavor. Now that 
America has at last come in, this country and 
its people will be reorganized into a stronger 
working power than ever. It will however take, 
while the war lasts, every ounce of strength, 
every bit of brain and all the ingenuity that we 
have. I believe that France is entirely alive to 
this fact and those who are making the days 
count do nothing outside of what the present sit- 
uation demands — and as you can fancy the de- 
mand is gigantic. 

One of my Touraine friends, Dick, has 
been in Paris for the past day or so before 
starting out with his ambulance. He left 
here this morning looking splendidly fit and hand- 
some in his uniform. He has a gentleness about 
him which should fit him for his job, and I pray 
that he may come through safely. They are go- 



PARIS 23 

ing into the worst of the fighting in Flanders and 
are to replace a section that has been completely 
shot to pieces. Bill Taller writes me enthusias- 
tically from the French Aviation School at 
Avord where he is learning the terrible and allur- 
ing game. He simply adores it. 

We have had two more air raids; one was 
pretty bad, but somehow one gets used to any- 
thing and people take them quite calmly. 

I am kept busy hours after work writing to 
these various lads at the Front and in camps. 
It is extraordinary how much letters and little 
packages mean " out there." Of course it is the 
thought that some one nearer than home is think- 
ing of them. The French tell me that the morale 
of the entire army depends on just such little 
things. 

I am about to adopt a French filleul (godson) 
and I expect he will be the first of many. There 
are so pathetically many who have no one to take 
a bit of an interest in them. Some of the women 
here in Paris have twenty or thirty of these 
filleuls to whom they write. 

This morning I went down to the Gare du 
Nord with Mrs. Colby, one of our Alcazar pack- 
ers, and saw the French soldiers off for the 
Front. The Red Cross donates cigarettes and 
cigars to be distributed each day, and then dif- 
ferent girls and women go down and distribute 
them. The French Red Cross gives out drinks 
and sandwiches too. The point of it is that the 



24 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

men are, most of them, very sad and down- 
hearted. They have to say good-by to their fam- 
ilies at home, and the half hour or so between the 
time they leave their homes and the time the 
train starts is very hard for them. So we all 
try to be as gay as possible and they are like 
children in their quick response. I have never 
enjoyed anything more. They are for the most 
part entirely respectful, and so gallant and 
pathetically grateful. They adore the cigarettes, 
but are even more keen over the tiny American 
flags, and are heartbroken if they go off un- 
adorned. It is the same all over France ; even in 
the trenches they are mad for an American flag 
to stick on. 

Just as the last French troop train had pulled 
out, in came a whole train of our own blessed 
men, and perhaps we weren't glad to see them. 
They had come straight up from the Mexican 
border, and sailed from New York only eight 
days ago. Of course they were all pleased to 
death to find some one who could speak English 
and told me all the latest news and much about 
Edison's extraordinary new gun run by electric- 
ity. " That ought to finish the Germans," one 
of them said. It certainly seems as though 
it might, and how France will exult over the 
news ! 

These men had a pretty close call getting over, 
but luck seems to be with us, and they told me 
each month now would see half a million men 



PARIS 25 

from the U. S. in France. It is perfectly glo- 
rious. 

As you see, we have moved over from the 
Lutetia and are very comfortably settled here. 
The Hotel Vernet is as modern as any, nice and 
clean, and very much quieter and more private 
than the Lutetia. We have good rooms on the 
court, but with a patch of sky and a green vine 
to look at. Our little street is just off the 
Champs £lys6es, and the M6tro takes me to my 
work in fifteen minutes, so it is most con- 
venient. 

I am going to send this letter along without 
adding more. I have a notion the censor dis- 
likes fat envelopes. 

Hotel Vernet, Paris, August 11th, 1917. 

This week has been a hummer and I have 
scarcely stopped to breathe, not one moment to 
write a word in, so I have had to wait until now. 
It is Saturday, and we therefore get a half holi- 
day. I have refused to go anywhere as I have 
dozens of letters to write and oceans of clothes 
to mend, not to mention a bit of a rest and mak- 
ing the most of a hot water day. 

I really have done a good week's work at the 
Alcazar and feel like Dad's little boy : " How 
pleasant is Saturday night when you've tried 
all the week to be good." At any rate, I'm feel- 
ing satisfied as I think of all the hospital supplies 
that I have packed and shipped off to the Front. 



26 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

It is good to feel that, although a girl, I have the 
chance to do my bit where it is needed. 

We have at present hundreds of cases pouring 
in all the time, and such a limited supply of 
workers to unpack them. There are two 
thousand cases in the Red Cross Clearing House 
that we simply can't handle for the moment, our 
Alcazar being stocked to the roof. At present I 
am a Jack-of -all-trades and run from one depart- 
ment to the other. In between times I am learn- 
ing the very complicated system of shipping. 
However, it's fine to be busy, and of course I 
enjoy it tremendously. 

Paris, August 12th, 1917. 

I am writing at the canteen during the few 
moments before going on duty, it being positively 
the only chance I have had in days. I'm afraid 
this will be rather jerky as I am called off every 
few minutes to cut cake, make sandwiches, etc. 
My work here at the Y goes on as usual in the 
evenings, except on Sundays when I am here dur- 
ing the afternoon hours too. 

Last Sunday night, Mrs. Roosevelt, two or 
three of the other girls and myself went up to 
the little service which the Y has for the soldiers 
each week. It was very impressive. So many 
of these men are just back from the lines for a 
few days, or on their way up to the Front, and 
the realization of how uncertain life has become 
for them makes them look very serious. The 



PAEIS 27 

place is always packed and a mass of khaki. It 
seemed so strange to be there, singing the familiar 
hymns which I have sung ever since I can remem- 
ber. Particular ones I always associate with 
the peaceful Sunday nights at Farmington — 
such a contrast to the grim atmosphere that sur- 
rounds all such gatherings now. It stirs one 
strangely. 

Paris, August 14th, 1917. 

Yesterday your delightful friends. Monsieur 
and Madame Meslier, called and asked me to din- 
ner. It's a crow^ded week but I made a big 
effort and got time off, as I remember your tell- 
ing me that these people are characteristic of the 
very best French types. Paris is such a hash 
of different nationalities that I long for a 
glimpse of the real thing. Few Americans are 
getting to know any but the middle and lower 
classes for you know how difficult it is to be 
admitted into the higher circles, especially now 
that these good people are smothered in war 
work. 

Naturally I had a beautiful time. I was scared 
stiff on account of my French, but I have im- 
proved some and got along better than I had an- 
ticipated. The Mesliers have a beautiful apart- 
ment on the Avenue Montaigne, very French and 
lovely with wonderful pictures and rare old bric- 
a-brac from all parts of the world. I have never 
seen two old people so much in love with each 



28 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

other, there is nothing the least bit slushy about 
tliem but one can't help seeing that each worships 
the ground the other walks on and such exquisite 
courtesy and consideration you have never seen ! 
When I arrived, Madame Meslier kissed me on 
both cheeks and, if I had been the daughter of 
the family, I couldn't have been made more of. 
I was told that I was the image of my chere mere, 
which naturally made a great hit with me. 

I think they thought that I represented Amer- 
ica and all the enthusiasm and gratefulness which 
they felt for my countiy was showered upon me 
until I was completely abashed. There is no 
doubt but that the French think that we have 
come as the saviors of the world, and no words 
can express how they " honor us for risking all 
perils and fighting for the right — three thousand 
miles away from home." The Mesliers are both 
very brilliant mentally and were keen to hear 
what the point of view was in the States. I told 
all I knew which wasn't much, but they were 
very nice and listened to me. 

An ancient butler served us at table and I'm 
sure he must have been in the family for several 
centuries at least! At any rate he feels called 
upon at times to use a bit of discipline, and talks 
right up to Monsieur and Madame which they 
take absolutely as a matter of course ! The food 
was simply marvelous and as I hadn't seen any- 
thing like it since leaving the States I'm afraid I 
ate too much, but really couldn't help it, every- 



PARIS 29 

thing was so delicious. After dinner numerous 
liqueurs were passed around. I tried two dif- 
ferent kinds and they were bully and, I guess, 
as old as the butler! 

Monsieur and Madame brought me home them- 
selves (as they didn't think my Father would 
want me entrusted to a maid ! ) and embraced me 
several times at the doorway of my hotel, much 
to the edification of the concierge. I hope they 
approved of me; I tried to be very proper and 
wore my meekest expression. 

I have two French filleuls now, one I picked up 
the other night when we were seeing the soldiers 
off at the Gare du Nord and the other was willed 
to me by a girl who was going home to America. 
The one I found the other night is on his way to 
Salonika, has a fine sensitive face and looks 
thirty although he is only twenty-three. The 
other boy is in a hospital at Toulouse with a 
wounded leg. These lads adore letters more than 
anything on earth and every once in a while I 
send a package of sausage, tobacco and sweets. 
They get such drab things to eat and it makes 
the long months and the terrible monotony a bit 
more bearable. There were a whole bunch of 
un-marrained (godmother-less) men at the 
station that night, and we each took a godson. 

Paris, August 22nd, 1917. 
This afternoon I had the most interesting time. 
I had just gotten back to the Alcazar after 



30 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

luncheon, when one of the girls who drives our 
camions of supplies about, came in and asked for 
a companion to go out with her to the Versailles 
hospitals (they don't allow the drivers to go 
any distance out of Paris alone). Mrs. Church- 
ill, the head of our packing room, volunteered 
to let me go and of course I jumped at the 
chance. It was a really warm day, the first in 
weeks, and perhaps I w^asn't glad to get a sniff 
of country air. The trees and flowers along the 
way were ravishing. I've been so busy during 
the past few weeks that I haven't had a moment 
even to go out and sit under a tree in the Bois, 
so you can imagine what a real joy it was to 
get a bit of country. 

We left supplies at three different hospitals, 
two of which were situated in convents. The 
grounds all walled in, but so lovely when one 
got inside. Acres of land, shady vistas and 
flowers and fruit trees everywhere. The blesses 
were out in mobs strolling about in their pyjamas, 
and poor one-armed men playing ball along the 
paths. 

We were taken all about by the sweet nuns 
who were most curious over our Ford camion 
and speechless with astonishment that women 
should actually drive such a thing. The entire 
street turned out to see us off. It was very 
funny. 



PARIS 31 

Paris, September 2nd, 1917. 

The news from Russia this morning is cer- 
tainly discouraging, and I do hope that the shock 
of seeing Riga actually taken may put some 
punch into the Russian soldiers. Of course we 
all expected the capture but it is a shock just the 
same. 

If I wasn't so busy all the time the war news 
would make me perfectly sick. Luckily no one 
has time to stop and think. I can't half realize 
what an unusually unique time I am having and 
I don't suppose I shall until years hence. At 
any rate the past two months are the most all- 
around satisfactory ones I have ever spent. The 
work in connection with the Y. M. C. A. has 
brought many new interests, and there have been 
a score of tiny happenings which have made me 
thankful that I was here and as though perhaps 
I was of some small use. 

Paris, September 8th, 1917 
Isn't the Russian news fierce? I've never seen 
anything like the way it has taken the punch 
out of every one. I was down at the Gare du 
Nord yesterday doing a little work for the Red 
Cross, distributing cigarettes, etc., among the out- 
going French soldiers. We couldn't seem to 
cheer them, and I didn't see any of the usual 
smiles. The ray of light which the U. S. troops 
brought when they began coming over has, for 
the moment, been completely obliterated. The 



32 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

papers don't deny that it is the worst blow the 
Allies have received since the war began, and it 
is as though a black cloud had descended upon 
every one. 

I am getting so fierce about the Germans I 
could fairly commit an atrocity ! But then every 
one feels that way, when he sees the things they 
have done here. On top of the bad news one 
hears that the storms have ruined the fruit, and 
destroyed the wheat crop, and the poor peasants 
are terribly down over the prospect of a winter 
with no coal and less food than during the past. 

Lyons-la-Foret, Normandy, 

September 19th, 1917. 

I haven't written for the past ten days for two 
reasons. In the first place we have never been 
so busy, and in the second place the war news 
has been so terrible that I knew I couldn't write 
anything but a blue letter. So it seemed better 
to wait until I had something cheerful to tell you. 

Behold us at present off on a bat, and in the 

most delicious country imaginable. Aunt T 

and I have both been getting a bit tired and 
also felt that we must get a glimpse of the country 
before the summer had vanished. At the Alca- 
zar, they were most keen for me to take a little 
vacation so it seemed a propitious time to store 
up a bit of extra energy for the coming winter. 
We therefore left Paris very early in the morn- 
ing, rode on the train about an hour and motored 



PARIS 33 

the rest of the way. Such a country as it is! 
The dew was still on the grass when we reached 
the little station and everything fresh and beau- 
tiful in the morning light. We're on the east- 
ern edge of Normandy and here the war hasn't as 
3^et made so much impression, at least not to the 
outward eye. Of course one sees no men at all 
except Boche prisoners tilling the ground, and 
somehow one doesn't think of them as men ! 

The country looks wonderfully rich and well 
kept, and the women marvels of industry. The 
storms have not hit this comer of France and the 
crops are somewhat protected by the famous 
Lyons Forest, on the edge of which our little town 
is situated. It's a quaint spot, with narrow 
winding streets, and rich in color and beauty. 
The forest itself is one of the most beautiful that 
I have ever seen, and to our city -accustomed eyes 
seems a veritable paradise, with its miles of 
gigantic trees, the moss-covered ground and the 
winding paths through the green. 

These peasants are most interesting and I am 
glad to get a glimpse of French life in war time 
from this angle. I notice in talking with the 
women and the old, old men that if anything they 
are fiercer against the Boches than those to whom 
the war is much more of a reality. In those little 
villages they are personally safe, and quite a 
distance from the Front. They have no air raids, 
and except for the absence of their men folk, life 
continues much as before. But if one thinks 



34 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

that they are asleep and less alive to the outrages 
of the common enemy than those unfortunates 
who live close to the lines, then one doesn't un- 
derstand the immense unity that has made 
France stand as one man during three years of 
unspeakable hell. Any hurt or insult inflicted 
against any part or individual of this land is felt 
and taken personally by the country as a whole. 

We spend most of our time jogging about in a 
delightful high dog cart. An old peasant woman, 
the town bakeress and the owner of the vehicle, 
drives us, and generally talks the whole Avay, 
which is very amusing. She told us that her 
horse was one that was captured from the Ger- 
mans and for that reason she bought him for a 
bargain, as few people want even a horse that is 
Boche ! 

Sometimes we take along a couple of her little 
grandchildren of whom there seems a limitless 
supply, and she tells us how hard it is for her 
young but very weary looking daughter to bring 
up this large family alone and with her husband 
fighting far away in Salonika. The first year of 
the war this young wife took the two littlest chil- 
dren and made the perilous crossing to spend her 
husband's short leave with him. She must have 
been a picturesque figure in her Normandy cap 
and costume and with those two wee children. 
The very first time she had ever been more than 
a few kilometers away from her birthplace! 



PARIS 35 

How this war has stirred the civilized world, even 
to its farthest sleepiest nooks and corners! 

I am dropping with sleep after all this fresh 
air so must stop for now and turn in. 
I wish you could enjoy the view out of my 
casement window to-night. Quaint pointed 
roofs against a sky powdered with stars, shadows 
of trees heavy with apples in the foreground, and 
a delicious odor of flowers and dank grass. Per- 
fect stillness except from time to time the far 
distant boom of guns, which means another raid 
on Paris. But here peace and beauty unutter- 
able. Would to God one could say as much of 
the rest of this poor land. 

En route from Lyons-la-F6ret to Paris, 
September 26th, 1917. 

It's very hard to leave this exquisite country 
but after the first day or two it seemed strange 
not to have anything to do and I don't believe I 
could stand it for very long. 

Yesterday we visited two English camps in the 
vicinity of Lyons, the first composed of a handful 
of English and Canadian officers and four hun- 
dred and eighty-five prisoners (Boches). The 
English keep them there to cut timber in the 
forest which is made into charcoal and shipped 
to the Front, where it is burned for warmth. Its 
great asset is that it doesn't make any smoke. 
In this camp they turn out sixty tons a day. 



36 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

The Boches live in splendid looking tents and 
huts in a large fenced off area, with thick barbed 
wire all around. They have fine food, their own 
German cooks to cook for them, a canteen where 
they can buy all they need and are paid good 
wages for all they do. This is characteristic 
treatment of all Boche prisoners in France and, 
when we hear of the cruelty and torture used by 
the Germans towards Allied prisoners, it makes 
me so mad I can't see. 

The second camp we went to was even more 
interesting as it was made up entirely of Hindus, 
with the exception of the English officers, who 
brought them over from India and who have 
them in charge here. The camp is situated on 
the edge of the forest. Flocks of mahogany 
stained tents everywhere, with their picturesque, 
beturbaned occupants. You can't imagine how 
strange it seemed to see those black people camp- 
ing in the quiet Normandy landscape, and as one 
of the young officers told us how they had left 
their warmth and beloved tropics to come into a 
strange land, I found a respect in me growing, 
not only for these weird black boys — but for the 
English and their great genius in colonization. 
When you realize that it is only a relatively short 
time since the general mutiny in the very part 
of India from where these men came, it is indeed 
w^onderful that 1914 should see the Hindus volun- 
teering their services, undertaking the long voy- 
age, being attacked by submarine and finally 



PARIS 37 

setting up tlieir picturesque camp in the cold and 
distant country of an alien race. All this of 
their own free will, and for the sake of the once 
despised English master ! 

Surely if England has become the great and 
powerful nation that she is to-day, there must be 
some fine, human influence behind it. Her col- 
onies have come to her rescue en masse and many 
of them have not waited to be drafted. As I saw 
the friendly relationship — the human bond — 
between these husky Indian lads and their Anglo- 
Saxon officers, I felt that the reason why Eng- 
land is the biggest colonizing nation and the most 
successful is because she has made herself stand 
in her far off possessions for equity, ethics, and a 
fair standard of morals. Those are things even 
half breeds can comprehend, and they have an- 
swered the call and come to do their bit, for a 
country and a master whom they have learned to 
trust ! 

What a contrast to the German colonies in 
Africa, who flatly refused to lift a finger for the 
sake of that "Vaterland" and "Kultur" of 
which we hear so much ! 

Paris, October 1st, 1917. 
The A. F, F. W. has at last been absorbed by 
the Red Cross and as this will bring many 
changes in its wake, I don't believe I shall be 
needed much longer. For a long while the Y. 
M, C. A. people have been trying to persuade me 



38 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

to go over to them as a full-time worker and as 
the Alcazar is being entirely reorganized and all 
the packing will probably be done outside of 
Paris, it seems an auspicious time to make the 
change. 

You ask if my French is improving. I think 
it is a bit, although it's so hard to get any chance 
to talk. The entire French people are keen 
to practice their English on you : the shopkeepers 
simply refuse to converse in French. 

Paris, October 9th, 1917. 

We have moved our canteen indoors now, the 
winter rains having already set in and are es- 
tablished inside the beautiful Y Headquarters 
building, which in former days was the home of 
one of the Napoleons. There is a huge kitchen 
lined with gorgeous metal pots and pans in which 
we cook our wares and a fine big room for the 
canteen itself. It is of course much warmer and 
cozier and the boys flock in even larger numbers 
than when we were outside. I think I told you 
that all the canteen girls wear cherry colored 
aprons and white caps with black velvet stream- 
ers. It gives a splash of color to the room and 
the boys love anything that suggests a feminine 
touch. 

When I go into the Y. M. C. A. entirely, I shall 
(have to blossom forth in ai regular uniform. 
They are very good looking, perfectly plain gray 
suits with Alice-blue collar and the red triangle 



PARIS 39 

on the sleeve, small blue waterproof hats with 
the triangle on the front of the crown and 
heavy army cape to go over it all, with " U. S." 
on the collar. 

Paris, October 17'th, 1917. 

The week has sped by and I haven't had a 
moment, and to add to this we have been having 
a few days of splendid crisp, sunny weather and 
it has spurred me on to work my hardest. Also, 
it seems as though during the past week every 
man I know has turned up in Paris and all of 
the crowd who have been here right along, having 
received their commissions, are leaving for parts 
unknown at once. This has necessitated many 
farewell parties of course and I have had a 
great time wedging them in after work. 

It gives me a strange feeling — this saying 
good-by, over here, and if I were to allow my- 
self to think about the danger and the uncer- 
tainty of ever seeing any of these lads again, I 
think I'd have nervous prostration. Here are 
four of my best friends leaving for the Front 
within the next few days, two in aviation and 
two in artillery, and yet one is as matter-of- 
fact about it as though they were off to a Sunday 
school picnic! 

Billy Tailer has at last finished his perilous 
training for the Lafayette Escadrille and looks 
too adorable for words in his sky-blue uniform 
with silver wings. Believe me, aviation is no 



40 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

joke and his face is pathetically worn and wan 
from his three months in the air. They never 
know when they are going to fly and therefore 
eat at any old time and any old thing. When 
they are training they generally have to fly at 
four o'clock in the morning and sometimes keep 
it up until eleven on a perfectly empty tummj^ 

The weather is decidedly cool and as 
the Government Avon't allow any heat turned 
on until the thermometer drops to ten degrees 
for three days in succession, there are times 
when we think we shall never be warm again. 

So many sugar ships have been sunk that we 
are going to be cut out of sugar entirely for the 
month of December. It will seem a bit strange 
and not too pleasant as I have never craved 
sweet things so much as since coming over here. 
We are so cut down in that way that every one 
clamors for candy and cakes, even those who 
despised them heretofore. 

Paris, October 19th, 1917. 
I wish you could see this wonderful city to- 
night. We have just driven up the Champs 
;filysees after having " tea-ed " downtown. As 
we crossed the Place de la Concorde the sky 
was a delicate apricot melting into blue, a won- 
derful background for the outline of the Eiffel 
Tower and the bold black silhouette of the 
obelisk. A fragile new moon hung suspended 
close to the horizon — with Venus showins: 



PARIS 41 

bright and clear, nearer to the moon to-night 
than at any other time during the year (so the 
papers said this morning) . 

Paris certainly grows on one and I never get 
tired of looking up the most beautiful street in 
the world with the strong lines of the Arc de 
Triomx^he looming up in the distance. Just now 
the trees on each side have turned yellow and 
in the morning with the sun shining they look 
like burnished gold. 

Last night some of the Y canteen workers 
were asked to go down to the Hotel Pavillion, 
which is the first to be taken over and run under 
Y. M. C. A. management for the American sol- 
diers in Paris. A party was being given for 
every one in the hotel and any one else who 
wanted to come. When we walked in, there was a 
variety show going on with various professional 
stunts, magician, etc. I have never seen so many 
branches of our service represented as in that 
audience or so many pairs of eyes. American 
girls are not a common sight over here and after- 
wards when the dancing started we were fairly 
mobbed! I'm sure every one had a bully time. 
These parties are going to be frequent affairs 
from now on, I understand. 

Paris, October 23rd, 1917. 
I have joined the Y. M. C. A. entirely now and 
it is already proving a great satisfaction. It's. 
so wonderful working for our own boys and 



42 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

feeling that I am giving all my strength and 
energ-y towards that end. I have moved into a 
uniform, for which in many ways I am thankful. 
It simplifies the matter of dress and here in 
Paris it gives you a more dignified position if 
you are wearing a uniform of the organization 
of which you are definitely a part. 

Personally, of course, the canteen work is 
tremendously appealing to me and perhaps in 
the early spring I shall go out into the " Field " 
(meaning one of the huts anywhere out of Paris) . 
I've had one chance already but the plan wasn't 
really practical. In the meantime my job here 
offers ever increasing openings for help and work 
and I am wonderfully happy in the anticipa- 
tion of such a busy, useful winter. 

I have seen a good deal of John the past few 
days, and he is becoming quite a habitue of the 
canteen. He has left the Ambulance service, it 
having been taken over by the army, and is now 
keen to join some other and more active part of 
the service. He was however meekly getting 
ready to go home, as he had a cable from his 
family telling him to take his choice of the Ambu- 
lance or Medical Unit work. As he didn't favor 
either of these suggestions, he was going home to 
talk to his family and try to persuade them to 
let him go to an officers' training school in Amer- 
ica. We know his family, and you can imagine 
how much chance he would have had! I ex- 
pressed my views rather strongly concerning a 



PARIS 43 

man's duty when his country was at war. I 
simply couldn't help saying what I did. Also it 
is most important for those of our men who are 
over to stick and enlist here, the problem of 
transportation being so stupendous. John has 
been crazy to go into the Artillery with all his 
friends, and to-day he came and told me he had 
decided to do it, family or no family. I almost 
embraced him on the spot! I hope I didn't in- 
fluence him unduly for it's a big responsibility, 
but I haven't a shadow of a doubt that he will be 
thankful all his life, if he comes through, that he 
didn't trot home to Mother, like a slacker. One 
can't live so near the Front without turning into 
a rabid recruiting agent ! 

This week has beaten all preceding ones for 
work. Our canteeuj has been jammed to the 
doors, and so much to do. We cannot seem to 
prepare enough food for these famishing hordes, 
and are eaten out of house and home every day 
no matter how much we have on hand. I liter- 
ally don't sit down once from two until nine, and 
my hands are a perfect sight and feel like sand- 
paper from dish water, etc. However, I seem to 
thrive on it all and it is wonderful to be busy. 

Paris, November 15th, 1917. 

You may be surprised to hear that I am not 

going to wait until the spring to go out into the 

" Field " but am going now. You see, I heard in 

an indirect way that the Y was put to it to find 



44 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

women for the huts they are erecting in the var- 
ious camps, as so many people wanted to stay in 
Paris for the winter, there being more coal here, 
etc. Secretly, I have been dying to go out into 
the Field before this and would have gone before 
now if it hadn't been that every one threw cold 
water on my little scheme and insisted that the 
Y would never consider sending a lady of twenty- 
two summers into an army camp. So I sat on 
my ambitions and decided I must be patient and 
count my mercies, which were certainly many. 
Then I heard these rumors about a shortage of 
women in the field and, taking my courage firmly 
in both hands, I pranced into the office of our 
head boss and offered my services. She looked 
me over for several of the longest moments I have 
ever known and then asked me if I knew of what 
field work consisted and if I had considered the 
hardships thereof! I said I was crazy to make a 
stab at it and thought I could stand the hard- 
ships. She then remarked that I looked young 
but I told her that I was very old in experience, 
at which she looked amused, thereby infuriating 
me. Why is it one is always so proud of what 
one thinks is worldly experience? At any rate, 
she put my name down and said in a few days I 
should know my fate and she did look as though 
I might do, so much so, in fact, that I beamed all 
over my face and was strongly tempted to kiss 
her, which wouldn't have done at all. However, 



PARIS 45 

I controlled myself and made what I hope was 
a very dignified exit. 

Last night the Canteen gave a party for the 
survivors of the " Alcedo." You remember it 
was torpedoed and went down about ten days 
ago. We tried to cheer them with music, a little 
dancing and lots of good food and after a while 
some of them lost their strained expression and 
really seemed to enjoy themselves. At any rate, 
they all chanted the same refrain : " Gee, it cer- 
tainly is swell to see a girl that talks American 
and not English." Most of them wanted to talk 
about their experiences and such gruesome and 
horrible tales you never heard. They had been 
on the boat that came to the rescue of the " An- 
tilles " and the " Finland " and during their short 
career over on this side, before they were hit 
themselves, they had picked up some three hun- 
dred Americans floating about. 

When their own horrible adventure came, they 
had exactly four minutes from the time the tor- 
pedo struck until the " Alcedo " disappeared un- 
der the water. Most of them saw the U Boat 
plainly and spoke with the Germans in the con- 
ning tower, who asked the tonnage and size of the 
boat they had sunk. Our boys lied valiantly, giv- 
ing wrong figures, which they said saved their 
lives as the Boches put them down as a merchant 
vessel and so failed to shoot them in their life 
boats, in the usual way. The torpedo struck 



46 CANTEENING OVEKSEAS 

right where some of the boys were sleeping and 
they never woke again. Twenty-one went down 
on the boat. 

Paris, November 17th, 1917. 

This morning I received my marching orders 
and I am that thrilled and excited I can scarcely 
contain myself. Where do you suppose they are 
sending me? To the port where I landed. I 
guess you will know where that is without my 
mentioning any names. It is to be one of the 
largest encampments in France and the Y. M. 0. 
A. is building eight huts in and about the town, 
so you can see how much work there is to be 
done. Of course I should have preferred in a 
way to get a bit nearer the fighting line but I do 
feel that for the winter months it's going to be 
quite ideal and probably in the Spring we shall 
have our chance to go out and rough it if we 
want to. 

There are thousands of our men to do for down 
there and more coming all the time. It's also the 
port where most of the mammoth supplies for our 
army come in, and, taken all in all, I know it's 
going to be interesting beyond words. I am sure 
you will approve and feel that I have done right 
in grasping this wonderful opportunity. It cer- 
tainly isn't a time to sit back. 

To-morrow I finish up at the Canteen, then 
have three days in which to pack and get ready. 
Thursday will see me on my way rejoicing al- 



PAKIS 47 

though sorry to leave my little canteen here and 
all the people who have been so kind. The sound 
of Bordeaux grows more and more attractive 
and my enthusiasm is growing in proportion. It 
is wonderful to be told how much you are needed. 
To-night I could fairly purr with contentment. 



CHAPTER III 

BOEDEAUX 

En Route from Paris for Bordeaux, 

November 21st, 1917. 

I am in a compartment otherwise completely 
filled with French officers, and maintaining a 
most dignified bearing in my little corner. Most 
of them have offered me the morning paper, maga- 
zines, chocolates and cigarettes with all the man- 
ner in the world, but I thought it wiser to refuse ! 

You should have seen me yesterday winding up 
my affairs at the bank and at the hotel, and this 
morning leaving, with my little trunk and suit 
case piled on the front of a taxi and the entire 
staff of the servants at the " Vernet " to see me 
off. I did feel pretty old and independent and so 
important traveling en militaire. Incidentally 
that got me a reduction on my ticket to Bor- 
deaux, a little matter of thirty-five francs reduc- 
tion. So you see, in more ways than one, it pays 
to be a soldier. 

It has been a wonderful trip so far, the country 
lovely in spite of sheets of rain and no leaves on 
the trees. The darkness is falling now and one 
gets glimpses, as the train rushes past, of long 
sweeps of meadowland, with everywhere the 

48 



BORDEAUX 49 

stately poplars, " exclamation points " of gray 
against a leaden sky. I can hardly wait to get 
there and see where I'm going to be put. I can't 
get over the feeling of exhilaration at the thought 
of finding a real niche in this huge machine of war. 

Bordeaux, November 21st, 1917. 
Well you see we arrived safely, although in a 
tempest of rain. The station was jammed with 
soldiers of all nationalities and I had quite a 
time collaring a porter, finding my trunks and 
hustling myself and baggage into a cab. The 
Hotel de France, for which I made tracks, was 
full to overflowing, but luckily the proprietor re- 
membered me and gave me a magnificent apart- 
ment, which looked very large and barn-like. I 
could hardly see the ceiling, and the furniture, 
although enormous, looked sort of lost in the vast 
area. I caught sight of myself in a huge mirror 
and positively I looked about the size of a fly. 
At any rate, I had a bully dinner and was soon 
aftei'wards sound asleep in my high bedstead. 

Miss M and P have been too kind for 

words ; showered me with attentions and delight- 
ful books, so I have been quite the spoiled baby. 

Bordeaux, November 27th, 1917. 

Well, my first day's work at Bordeaux has been 

most satisfactory and how good it seems to be 

back in harness again. The Y has taken over 

a huge building facing on the central Place and 



50 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

the Y. M. C. A. letters painted on the front can 
be seen many blocks away. The work here is 
very similar to that in Paris, only on a much 
larger scale. We serve the men with tea, coffee, 
cakes, ice cream, etc., and in between times go in 
and talk and sing with them or play games. This 
is the nucleus for all the surrounding camps and 
is packed with men on a few hours' leave. There 
are engineers, aviators, regulars, middies, and 
every other kind of U. S. soldiers and sailors you 
can imagine. I am hoping they will send me out 
to one of the huts in an outside camp. It would 
be intensely interesting to be close to a real en- 
campment, and see the colossal things they are 
doing. Our engineers are remaking France. 
The French people stand about watching with 
their mouths wide open. 

To-morrow is Thanksgiving. It seems strange 
with you all so far away. We shall be very busy 
as we are having a party for all the boys. 

Bordeaux, November 28th, 1917. 
(Thanksgiving Day.) 
We've had a full day — a little service at 8 :30 
this morning and I have just this moment come 
in from the Canteen and it is after eleven p. m. 
We went out to the dedication of one of the large 
huts in the Marine Camp and it was marvelous 
and inspiring. I am hoping that they are going 
to send one of the older women and me out to run 
the Canteen there. The country is heavenly and 



BORDEAUX 51 

the work engrossing and inspiring. To-night we 
had a big party at the Y Headquarters here. The 
boys had a royal time. 

I must to bed now. God bless and keep you 
always. 

Base 2, U. S. A. P. O. 705, Lormont, 

December 15th, 1917. 

I think I wrote you that I was hoping to be 
assigned to the Marine Camp, and here I am for 
a little while at least. Miss M , a very agree- 
able older woman, two Y men, and I have charge 
of the big new hut which has been built for the use 
of the 5th and 6th Marines, This is my first ex- 
perience with this branch of the service and I 
must admit that I am tremendously impressed. 
They have to stand a lot of guying just now as 
there are rumors that parts of the 1st Division 
have already gone into the lines in a French sec- 
tor. The marine motto has always been " First 
in the Fight " and it galls them terribly to be 
held back. There is a big contingent of them in 
Bordeaux on M. P. (Military Police) duty; an- 
other cause for jeers from the other branches of 
the service ! I heard an old regular infantry man 
the other day call out to a marine : " You're good 
for nothin' but the police force, that's why Per- 
shing keeps you out of the trenches." 

Of course a violent row ensued in which I'm 
glad to say the marine carried off the laurels. 
Later, when he came into the canteen, I asked 



52 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

him about it and he said : " Girlie, we're just 
biding our time and ain't sayin' much but if they 
ever let us up to those trenches, we'll show them 
that there ain't a speck of yellow in the whole 
Marine Corps ! " They're a fine looking bunch, 
well set up and always spotlessly clean. I thor- 
oughly enjoy working for them and have grown 
very fond of a dozen or so of the boys already. 

Our hut is made in the usual way ; half of the 
rough hall is used for reading and writing and 
the other for entertainments, with a diminutive 
stage built at the end. The canteen runs the 
entire length of one end of the building and looks 
very much like a grocery store with its broad 
counter and wares stacked in exhibition piles at 
the back. The canteen is my domain and the 
place where I spend practically all my waking 
hours. The electricity hasn't been put in as yet 
so we use lamps of acetylene gas which help to 
light things up at night but which are a bit over- 
powering at times, the smell being pretty bad. 

Just now the weather is bitter cold and, being 
so near the river, there are dense fogs at night 
which creep up between the cracks of our roughly 
built floor and somehow seem to get into my very 
bones. When I have been on duty for three or 
four hours, I lose all feeling from the waist down. 
It's very difficult to thaw out as our billet is like 
a refrigerator and in the wing of an old chMeau 
that hasn't been opened for three years. At 
night, when I go to bed, I pile everything I own 



BORDEAUX 53 

in the line of clothing on top of me and clutch 
my hot water bag, " old faithful," firmly, wishing 
that I had about a dozen just like it. However, 
it doesn't keep its warmth very long. I heat the 
water on my wee alcohol lamp and then slip the 
bag between the icy sheets. The other night, I 
was about ten minutes in getting to bed and it 
didn't take more than that for the heat to dis- 
appear entirely, and, in twenty minutes, the bag 
was like ice. 

The mud in camp is ankle-deep and cakes about 
one's shoes an inch thick, forming a freezing mold 
or jacket for each foot ! 

We eat our meals in the little room back of the 
canteen, with the two soldier details that help us 
in our work. The food is regular army stuff and 
is brought across from the big mess kitchen in a 
tin pail. As it is quite a distance and the 
weather fearfully cold, our "slum" (stew) and 
coffee are generally only luke warm by the time 
they arrive. However, of course nobody kicks 
and I am so intensely grateful to be here that I 
would put up with much worse conditions for the 
sake of being just where I am. 

The boys are a wonderful lot. They train from 
sunrise to sunset in this horrible mud, but night 
sees them piling into the hut by the hundreds. 
There are always groups of intense, eager faces 
to be seen around the dozen or so stoves discuss- 
ing anything and everything. A lot of them 
crowd about the long tables writing letters home 



54 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

and playing games, and a few are always hanging 
over the counter laughing and talking. It is 
pathetic how eager they are for a word with some 
woman who speaks their own lingo and I wish 
the day were three times as long and I had a 
dozen pairs of hands. You can't conceive how 
busy we are and how much, much remains undone 
in spite of it. 

Of course I don't know much about soldiers as 
yet but I can't help but feel that the marines must 
be above the average. I can scarcely wait for 
them to get their chance in the trenches. I'm 
sure they will show up splendidly. 

Bordeaux, December 24th, 1917. 
My joy was short-lived because here I am back 
at Headquarters in Bordeaux. They had to send 
the girl who was here to a place where there was 
a big new hut and no one to run it, and as they 
were swamped with men here on leave, they sent 
a hurry call out to Lormont and so I am back on 
my old job and working from nine A. M. to eleven 
p. M. At last I know the meaning of that phrase 
" the Christmas rush." I was disappointed to 
leave my marines, of course, but I can't help feel- 
ing that I am needed here and we hope to make 
this first Christmas away from home as easy for 
these poor lads as possible. Mrs. Astor and Miss 
Harriman are opening up their big new restau- 
rant on the ground floor to-morrow and there is 
to be a Christmas tree with presents for every one. 



BORDEAUX 55 

The most wonderful thing happened yesterday. 
Aunt T. and Uncle J. suddenly appeared out of a 
clear sky to spend Christmas with me. I have 
never been so surprised or pleased, and laughed 
and cried all in one moment. Such hugging and 
carrying on you never did see. I was trying my 
best not to get homesick or mind being away from 
you all, so far, but I'm afraid I was a bit lone- 
some. And now Aunt T. has come and I'm quite 
the happiest young person you ever saw. It's 
an awfully busy time of course but I think I shall 
be able to get off and have some meals with her, 
and just to know that some one who belongs to 
you is within seeing distance makes all the differ- 
ence. 

You may be sure that I am thinking of you all 
at home and of the years and years of Christmas 
eves that stretch into the past. I know you are 
busy trimming the house with holly wreaths and 
mistletoe and there is a feeling of mystery and 
wonder in the air. I can see the guest room piled 
high with gifts of all shapes and sizes and down- 
stairs an expectant row of stockings hanging be- 
fore the library fire. How I should love to peek 
in on you all to-night and yet I know you are as 
thankful as I am that I am right where I am and 
at least trying to do my tiny bit to help over here. 
May we all be together before another year has 
rolled around ! 

One can't help thinking of the hundreds of 
thousand allied soldiers spending their Christmas 



56 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

eve in the trenches and of course especially our 
own lads who are beginning to get their taste of 
war. 

I remember Uncle S. telling me about the Rus- 
sian Front just at this season a year ago. The 
Russians from their side heard the Germans sing- 
ing the familiar " Stille Nacht " and other Christ- 
mas carols and gathered that the Boches were cel- 
ebrating and would not be in a mood for fighting. 
The Russians therefore stopped all operations 
and gave themselves up to the night that gener- 
ally means " peace and good will." At about two 
o'clock, the Germans realized that all was silent 
over the enemy lines and at once launched a mam- 
moth attack which caught the Russians unawares 
and Christmas morning dawned on a wholesale 
massacre and slaughter, until the Bzura river 
was red with blood and a mass of bodies floating 
down the stream. 

Later. 

I managed to get out for a few moments just 
before dinner and slipped up to Tante's room in 
the hotel with a. lot of foolish little gifts and a 
huge bunch of holly that I had purchased and 
spread them on her trunk with a steamer blanket 
over it and a wreath of holly all around. It 
looked quite sweet and I did feel so Christmasy 
while I was doing it. 

I have just now come home and the bells are 
ringing all over the city so I know it is midnight. 



BORDEAUX 57 

It seemed stranger than ever to-niglit walking 
down my cobble-stoned street with the quaint, 
picturesque roofs outlined against the sky. Such 
a change from last year to this war-like France. 
The streets full of soldiers and I, myself, in a 
uniform ! What a world it is ! 

Bordeaux, December 27th, 1917. 

Such crowded busy hours as we have put in 
during the last few days. However, there will be 
a bit of a breathing spell now, as there are to be 
fewer men in on leave until New Year's. This 
afternoon Aunt T. is coming to see my hideous 
little room. I have built a fire that is much too 
large for my diminutive fire-place, and we are 
to have tea and cake! So you see it is to be a 
regular house warming. 

I don't know whether I have written you about 
my sleeping apartment before. At any rate, it is 
on the top floor of a tall thin house. It was the 
only place I could get and so I have thought it 
wiser to laugh at its disadvantages. There is no 
coal, and wood costs six francs for eight pieces so 
one just goes without except on special occasions 
like to-day. I generally get in from the canteen 
about 11 :30 p. m. and then my four flights seem a 
bit of a climb, but it is nice to have a little spot 
of your own and I'm always so glad to get to the 
top of the stairs. I still have struggles with my 
hot water bag, for I can always see my breath in 
the room and I think " old faithful " has gotten 



58 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

a bit discouraged and doesn't think it worth while 
to keep warm in this damp penetrating clime. 

The room is papered in a mud-colored tone of 
gold, beetle-shaped figures scattered over it at 
intervals of two inches! I have a black iron 
bedstead and a fire-place and mantelpiece made 
of the black and white mottled marble that is used 
for tombstones! There are two windows, but 
unfortunately one can't look out as they are 
made of red and navy blue stained glass. How- 
ever, I am very fond of my little room and to-day 
it wears a gay and festive look in anticipation of 
my party. I have put all my photographs out 
and we are going to have a fine cozy time I know. 

Bordeaux, January 7th, 1918. 

I don't know whether I shall put in a bid for 
the Front when Spring comes or not. I think 
there is a chance that I'd get my opportunity to 
go as the Y is giving the best places to those who 
have been in the service longest and had some 
little experience. Of course, there is always my 
age to stand in the way and make me wish I were 
a hundred and fifty with snow-white hair ! Also 
they don't let women go very close to the trenches 
and are getting more and more strict about it. 
Here, I am working in rapidly and get more re- 
sponsibility each day. It's hard to know just 
where the need is the greatest. 

I have just been given almost complete charge 
of our tea room at the Hut as every one else hates 



BORDEAUX 59 

housekeeping and accounts. I pay the bills, or- 
der all the food, keep the books and look after 
the maids, all en frmigais and, take it from Mani, 
it's some job ! The boys consume over two thou- 
sand a week of the special cakes that we have 
made of American flour, and drink literally gal- 
lons of chocolate. You know the French temper- 
ament and love it as I do, but you can imagine 
that a large per cent, of our supplies go into the 
capacious mouths and pockets of our servants, 
unless I stand guard all the time. 

We have numerous French ladies of the " first 
Bordeaux families " who come to help us certain 
afternoons a week, and incidentally to pick up 
the latest gossip and perfect their rather halting 
English. Eager French mothers bring their 
awkward young daughters to meet the flower of 
American manhood, and the F. of A. M. turn 
and flee for their lives when they see them, pre- 
ferring greatly the chic, pretty little shop girls 
with which Bordeaux is filled! The reason we 
have these " first " excellent females is " to 
cement the feeling of brotherhood between France 
and America," and it is my delightful job to wel- 
come the French mademoiselles and keep them 
working ; a thing this class of girls have never in 
their lives done, up to date. 

Bordeaux, January 27th, 1918. 
Miss Ely, our chief in Paris and the director 
of all the women Y workers in France, came down 



60 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

yesterday on a tour of inspection and to have a 
look at this busy section. She is a wonder and 
has always been fine to me. This time she was 
especially nice and seemed to approve of the little 
I have been able to do in my two months here. 
I told her I should like to stay on for the present 
and then go nearer the Front in the Spring. 
From what she said, I think I shall get my oppor- 
tunity. In a few months we ought to have our 
big place here in splendid shape and then I should 
love the experience of helping out with the men 
straight from the trenches. Luckily, we had 
word that Miss Ely was coming, so our building 
looked especially clean and in apple pie order! 
Also, all the women put on every detail of the 
regulation uniform, some of which is generally 
discarded, and altogether made the desired im- 
pression. 

It's very hard not to worry about the various 
lads I know at the Front. No word from Ted in 
weeks, which means that he has gone into the line 
with his Division, as he had expected. Some one 
brings in a new rumor each day and I don't see 
how any one is to come out alive. It makes me so 
heartsick sometimes that it's difficult to keep 
smiling and put my mind on my work. Billy 
Tailer is, I know, flying at the Front now. One 
of his latest letters dated in December said: 
" War is looming up pretty big for little me. I 
will be regular bait for the Germans any day 



BORDEAUX 61 

now. If I do happen to get it, wounded or other- 
wise, I won't forget our many good times to- 
gether. You certainly aided my existence over 
here a thousand fold. I am flying a 150 H. P. 
' Spad.' They are fine machines and terrifically 
fast, things just fade away when you are near the 
ground." Billy is such a winsome sort of person 
and one of the most lovable and unselfish boys 
I know. He is always talking about his family 
and especially of his mother in whom he is en- 
tirely wrapped up. I wish we had more like him. 
I remember the luncheons we had in Paris, — 
occasionally he brought along some friend from 
the Escadrille and they talked casually about 
how they would arrange to have me told when 
they were killed! And it isn't that Bill is a 
morbid type and wants to die. I have never seen 
any one who got more sheer enjoyment out of 
everyday life. He simply has the most wonderful 
capacity for complete self-sacrifice and his duty 
and what it may entail is so utterly apparent that 
it never occurs to him that he could follow an- 
other course. 

Bordeaux, February 5th, 1918. 
Yesterday I received a letter from the Y. M. 0. 
A. Headquarters informing me that I had been 
transferred to another post and to report to Paris 
at once. I can't tell you the name of the place 
I am going to but I suppose it is the most im- 



62 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

portant proposition that the Y has tackled so far 
and the one place in which every one is crazy to 
be stationed. 

You see, General Pershing isn't granting any 
" leaves " to the big cities, so they have picked out 
one small town ideally situated, and the men are 
all ordered to spend their eight day " permis- 
sion " there. General Pershing has turned over 
the entire organization of this big " leave camp " 
to the Y and they are picking people from all 
their different districts to go and get it started, 
and then to stay and run it. For some unknown 
and extraordinary reason, I've been asked to go, 
the only one from this Base, and I am simply 
overcome. I presume my place here was the one 
which could be most easily filled and then, I am 
young and they want all the girls they can get to 
cheer up the boys and make up to them for not 
going to Paris. 

It is vitally important that when the men come 
out of the trenches they shouldn't relax morally 
during their " leave " and take to drinking, etc. 
After all the frightfulness that they have gone 
through it isn't strange that a bit of civilized life 
and liberty should go to their heads and it is the 
time to insert good influence instead of bad. 
Most of the men who will come on leave have 
been in the lines since November without ever 
having had the sight of a woman. They have 
not even seen an undevastated town. 

I do think we have our work cut out for us as 



BORDEAUX 63 

they will be disappointed when they find that 
they can't go where they like. However, it's go- 
ing to be mighty interesting, I fancy. I feel that 
the work I have been doing is important, but if 
possible, the kind I am about to try is more so, 
and I am grateful for the extraordinary oppor- 
tunity. 

P. S., 11 : 30 p. M. 

The news has just come in of the sinking of an 
American transport. Two hundred and fifty 
men lost! 

It's this kind of thing that makes the boys grit 
their teeth, and the Germans will certainly get 
what is coming to them now. Think of all those 
lives lost before they had even had their chance 
to strike back. It makes one boil with rage. 



CHAPTER IV 

AIX-LES-BAINS 

Paris, February 9th, 1981. 
Here I am after a very comfortable trip, but 
the joy of seeing Paris again has been completely 
overshadowed by the news in this morning's 
Herald. Billy Tailer, the best of friends and 
the most splendid of men, has been killed, while 
flying over the German lines. I always knew in 
a vague way that I'd be terribly cut up if any- 
thing happened to him, but I never knew it would 
be like this. Somehow I feel ten years older and 
the war has become a more hideous reality than 
ever. I could kill any Boche who crossed my 
path to-night. Every street corner of this city 
reminds me of Bill, and the whole place seems 
alive with memories of his radiant, boyish face; 
for he was nothing but a boy in years and yet 
with the mature soul and character of a man. I 
shall miss Billy more than I can realize now. He 
is the first of my friends to " go West ^' and per- 
haps that makes it harder. One can't help feel- 
ing proud of any one who died in so glorious a 
way for his country, but it seems so infinitely sad 
and when the world needs Bill's kind so badly. 
There was a beautiful tribute to him in the 

64 



AIX-LES-BAINS 65 

Herald and a picture. It seems he was killed 
while trying to avenge the death of one of his 
friends. It was so entirely characteristic; he 
was the most valiant of friends. It was a very 
desperate but unequal fight in the air and finally 
Billy's machine crashed to the ground. This has 
been a fearful shock to me. One minute Bill is 
here and alive, smiling. The next, gone — with- 
out a sign. 

Paris, February 12th, 1918. 

A wonderful Spring day, and Paris a dream of 
loveliness. The streets are gay with color and 
the flower carts piled high with exquisite sprays 
of mimosa and huge bunches of deep purple vio- 
lets ; it is all one can do not to buy an armful. I 
have been tearing around all day getting orders 
for my new post, tickets, " movement order " 
stamped, etc. We don't leave until to-morrow 
and there are to be fifteen Y women on my train, 
so I shall be well chaperoned ! 

I have been trying to keep very busy so as not 
to think about Billy too much. This new job is 
one in which cheer and a smiling appearance 
count for everything, and I am trying hard to get 
in the proper mood. 

Aix-les-Bains, February 14th, 1918. 
Well, it was a great trip do^vm. I found in 
my compartment two other Y. M. C. A.'ers of a 
youngish age. They had just arrived from the 



66 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

States and this was their first post. We talked 
for about an hour blessing our stars that we had 
the whole compartment to ourselves, to stretch 
out in a bit. We had put out the light and each 
curled up in her cape when the door was yanked 
open and a large, blue-clad French officer thrust 
himself into our midst. Poor soul, he certainly 
had a night of it, as both windows were open, and 
you doubtless know the French opinion of 
" poisonous night air," He had just settled him- 
self and was slumbering sweetly when Miss 
O'Connor's huge, hea\^ roll came smashing down 
upon his head. I guess he ended up by longing 
for the peace of the trenches ! 

I find that every one else is writing home the 
name of the place where " we are at," so I cer- 
tainly am going to. We are at Aix-les-Bains, 
and I guess you will agree that it is an ideal place 
for a leave-camp. Of course, never having been 
in this part of France before, it is all delightfully 
new and beautiful beyond words. The last few 
hours in the train were wonderful, we were 
climbing up, up, with a gorgeous sunrise glorify- 
ing the tops of the Alps. 

The Y. M. C. A. has taken over the mammoth 
Casino, which is the most splendid affair of its 
kind I've ever seen; all marble pillars and won- 
derful frescoes and shiny hard-wood floors. The 
terrace takes up one entire side and is generally 
flooded with sunshine. It looks right out upon a 
magnificent stretch of snow-capped mountains. 



AIX-LES-BAINS 67 

We have a life-sized theater for Mr. E. H. Sothern 
and other lights to perform in, and a huge as- 
sembly room for movies. The ball room is going 
to be filled with booths where candy, cigarettes, 
etc., are sold, and the enormous bar has been 
turned into the canteen! It is of solid marble 
and the " grandest " thing you ever saw. We are 
making a library out of a large reading and 
writing room, fitted up with easy chairs, and 
glassed in on all sides. The sun just pours in 
and, so far, there has been plenty of sun. 

The old gambling rooms are being turned into 
billiard and pool rooms, and it is whispered that 
a man from Huyler's is on the way over to run 
the first real live American soda fountain that 
has arrived. We expect the first four hundred 
and fifty men to-morrow, and the same number 
arrive every day from now on. They have a full 
week here and will keep coming and going. In 
this way, we shall be taking care of about three 
thousand men each week. 

All the Y women workers are living together 
in two apartments in a sort of family hotel. 
There are about fifteen of us so far and I was 
delighted to find that Mrs. Margaret Deland is 
one of the fifteen ! Most of the women range all 
the way from thirty to fifty, but they are an ex- 
tremely nice lot and we all work together mighty 
well. I am rooming with Miss O'Connor, a very- 
keen, intelligent girl, who is one of the librarians 
in the New York City Public Library. We get 



68 CANTEENING OVEESEAS 

along beautifully, have a fine big room with a 
balcony and a view that takes your breath away. 

The food is excellent and we all eat together at 
a big, long table and have a very jolly time. I 
cannot get over how lucky I am to be here and 
from every standpoint it is great. The climate 
and air are splendid, and, of course, the experi- 
ence is invaluable. We shall meet, in time, every 
man who is serving in France ! 

To-morrow morning, bright and early, we meet 
the troop train, so I must to bed. The boys will 
need extra cheering after the perfectly frightful 
news from Russia. We hope we can make them 
forget things and just enjoy themselves for the 
week that they're here. 

I've spent the day in the cellar of the Casino, 
scrubbing shelves with soap and water and stor- 
ing supplies for the Canteen. Everything is 
ready now and looks lovely. 

Aix-les-Bains, February 17th, 1918. 

The days since I wrote last have been so full 
of preparation for the coming of all these boys 
that I haven't had a moment to myself. 

We expected them a day before they arrived 
and the whole population of the town had been 
practically camping out at the railroad station. 
General Alaire came down to open up the leave 
camp formally and E. H. Sothern and Mr. and 
Mrs, Winthrop Ames to run the beginning enter- 



AIX-LES-BAINS 69 

tainments. We all waited around with great 
impatience until the wire came that the boys were 
actually on the way. 

James Europe's famous orchestra (New York 
City) which is now attached to the 15th Infantry 
is going to be here three weeks. Twenty-eight 
darkies, with Mr. Europe himself in the lead, ar- 
rayed in shoulder straps and the silver bars of 
a First Lieutenant! They are perfectly scream- 
ing but a marvelous band and when they came 
marching down the street to meet the troops yes- 
terday, the French people went perfectly wild 
over them. 

Just before the troop train pulled in, a lot 
of my Bordeaux Naval Aviation boys came 
through on their way to a final training camp. 
They had several moments to wait, so piled off to 
see if I was down at the station to meet the 
troops. Of course I was, and it was wonderful 
seeing some old friends. They've all gotten their 
commissions since sailor-suit days in Bordeaux 
and look stunning in their new uniforms. 

After their train had left, the troop train 
pulled in and in all my life I never expect to 
be so thrilled again. After almost a week with- 
out work and without Sammies, I could have 
cried, I was so glad to see the familiar khaki. 
Also, the boys were just as they had come out of 
the trenches a day before, muddy boots and heavy 
packs, steel helmets and all. The first lot I've 



70 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

seen straight from the Front and I never was 
prouder that I was an American. There are no 
other men in the world like them. 

Aix turned itself inside out to receive them. 
The Mayor, arrayed in a tall silk hat and long- 
tailed coat, made a beautiful speech ! The village 
band played the Star Spangled Banner, and the 
Boy Scouts marched in the parade. Of course 
there were thousands of cameras snapping 
pictures, and movies are coming out soon. You 
must be on the lookout for them, and for me 
standing near the center holding a big American 
flag, and looking thrilled to the core ! 

I never have seen a more beautiful sight than 
those splendid boys marching from the station 
with the glorious mountains looming up in the 
background against a cloudless blue sky. They 
are all such dears, so thrilled at being on leave 
and so delightfully pleased with everything and 
everybody. 

We had the most wonderful show in the thea- 
ter last night for them, representatives from 
many theaters in London and Paris and ending 
up with Sothern himself who was fine, of course. 
Altogether a most successful beginning. 

Aix, February 19th, 1918. 

Day before yesterday, much to my relief, I got 

a long delayed letter from Ted A. and yesterday 

with a new bunch of boys that came in were 

twenty men from his particular battery in the 



AIX-LES-BAINS 71 

artillery. They knew " Lieutenant A." well and 
had seen him three days before. They will take a 
letter directly to him when they return to the 
trenches, which makes it very nice as the regular 
Postal Service takes a month or more. Since 
Bill's death, I have naturally become more anx- 
ious about all my friends " out there." 

Mother, you would be quite pleased with me if 
you could see me now. I have on four shirts, 
underdrawers, woolen stockings, knitted knee 
protectors and two sweaters. I am about as 
broad as I am long, but none of us seem to be 
able to keep the intense cold out. We are pretty 
high up in the mountains and the huge Casino 
in which I work from two P. M. to midnight 
isn't heated at all, and you can imagine it is ex- 
actly like a tomb. Luckily, here in the Pension, 
we have a beautifully sunshiny room and a stove 
in the hall, so we get thawed out once a day and 
manage to survive. 

My job consists in being interpreter for any 
one who needs me, and serving hot drinks, sand- 
wiches and hot dishes (of sausages, potato, mac- 
aroni, etc.) over the top of the beautiful marble 
counter to hundreds and hundreds of ravenous 
doughboys. The boys are full of the most amaz- 
ing tales and I haven't had such an interesting 
time since I came to France. They're none of 
them very sanguine about a speedy finish of the 
war, alas. 



72 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

Aix, Washington's Birthday, 1918. 

Yesterday I had an afternoon off and motored 
over with Mrs. Roosevelt to Chambery where the 
Y has just opened up its second leave camp. It 
is only about ten miles away and not nearly as 
large as this ; only accommodating three hundred 
instead of three thousand. The country between 
here and there is ravishing, the Alps and the sun 
on the snow, so beautiful it makes you ache. 

I spent the afternoon in the Chambery Y. M. 
C. A. Headquarters, talking and singing with the 
men. It is very attractive over there. The 
fact of there being fewer makes it much more 
homey and at four o'clock the boys all come in 
and have chocolate in front of blazing fires which 
they have in all the rooms. The building was a 
club before the war, and adapts itself very well 
to this sort of thing. Mrs. Roosevelt has been 
working like a horse to get it in shape and as she 
has beautiful taste, it looks lovely. The reading 
rooms are gay with chintz, and big bowls of vio- 
lets and mimosa on the mantelpieces. 

Last night at the Casino we had what was 
called " Stunt Night." Every one who could 
act, sing, dance, etc., got up and did it, and it 
was very amusing. I do believe a crowd of " reg- 
ulars " are the most pitiless of judges. One poor, 
little Jew got up and thought he could sing, but 
scores of scornful voices at once informed him 
that he was mistaken, and the poor soul was 



AIX-LES-BAINS 73 

dragged off the stage by main force and the aid 
of a hook (a long cane) ! 

Mrs. Koosevelt has gone up to Paris to get ten 
more workers for Aix alone. We have much too 
few to swing things properly and have worked 
like dogs the past week. Personally, I am used 
to it, but some of the other women are new to the 
job and look like wrecks. 

We have abundant and delicious food at our 
Pension. One hears so much about food short- 
age but Savoy is so rich in products of all kinds 
that, so far, we haven't lacked for a thing and I 
am growing disgracefully fat. 

I'm so sorry that my letters haven't been get- 
ting over. The censor must have been holding 
them. I wonder if I've been saying too much. 
It's so hard not to tell all you know, otherwise 
I should just have to send the usual " well and 
happy " and let it go at that. 

The extreme cold has broken and Miss O'Con- 
nor and I are bundled up and writing in the sun 
on our wee balcony. It is quite glorious and 
the world a very beautiful place this morning. I 
wish you could enjoy our view. The clouds are 
just drifting off of the tops of the mountains, and 
the atmosphere is as clear as crystal, so that one 
can pick out each individual fir tree, black against 
the side of the lower Alps. 

Now to work. You don't know with what sat- 
isfaction I say that. 



74 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

Aix-les-Bains, February 27th, 1918. 

The papers are certainly discouraging reading 
now, and the facts that don't get printed make 
one sick. Great things are brewing up the line 
and the trainload of boys that leave here every 
day to go back, carry the most determined lot 
you ever saw, although every one knows what his 
fate may be. 

Miss O'Connor being out, I am taking this ex- 
cellent opportunity of " hooking " her pen ! I 
have been working unusually hard since I ar- 
rived here, but for reasons which under the laws 
of the Medes and Persians we are not allowed 
to write of, work has suddenly become slack, — 
though I don't doubt the papers at home are 
full of it ! At any rate, being a leave-camp, we 
are just at present not too popular, at least not 
as popular as another place which, as Ed puts 
it, " is a few yards nearer Heaven ! " After the 
mad whirl since opening, no one is especially 
upset at a bit of, respite. 

Yesterday I went down to the station to see 
one of our troop trains off. I know practically 
every lad in it. Several of us stood at the end 
of the platform and shook hands with each boy 
as the train moved slowly past. They were all 
hanging out of the windows with hands out- 
stretched, the setting sun shining full on their 
eager, boyish faces, and many of them smiling 
bravely through a mist of tears. We waved and 



AIX-LES-BAINS 75 

waved as they pulled out and could still see a 
flutter of handkerchiefs and hear a faint cheer in 
the distance, when the train turned the bend and 
was lost to sight. Every one left on that plat- 
form was crying, even the officers, and I don't be- 
lieve any of us will every forget it as long as we 
live. 

They went back without one word of com- 
plaint, knowing that for most of them it would 
be the last journey, before that great mysterious 
one from which there is no returning. They were 
very full of gratitude for the little we have been 
able to do for them here. One boy said to me: 
" Girlie, it will seem just like a dream, when we 
get back there." One can't help but hope that 
whatever seemed to them beautiful in this short 
" dream " will stand by to make life, and even 
death, easier " out there." 

That hope, and the power to pack their brief 
" leave " full of the memory of home influences 
and of home joys, makes this leave-camp work, to 
my mind, the most important kind that is being 
done, outside of the trenches. The strain emo- 
tionally and physically is greater than anything 
which I have so far taken up, but I am sure that 
I have the strength and that I shall find all that 
I lack in the way of brawn. Surely when it is 
for so important a cause, the strength will not 
be lacking. So far I feel very well, and in all 
my life I have never looked so strong. 



76 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

Aix-les-Bains, February 28th, 1918. 
Mrs. Deland feels as most every one over here 
does, that our generation has seen happier times 
than we ever will see again, that we are on the 
verge of a new era in the history of the world, in 
which the old order of things will be entirely 
changed, and there will be all kinds of revolu- 
tions and wars between capital and labor, etc. 
I get quite discouraged when I hear all these in- 
tellectual guys talking about it and realize how 
very little I know concerning the big forces in 
our country and what part they will play in 
this war for democracy. I am trying hard to 
learn things, to read when I get a minute's time 
and listen, with ears flapping during meal times, 
but it is hard to keep up with everything when 
one hasn't even time to look at a paper. Of 
course, my time, my interest, everything I have 
to give, centers round the boys, and it is rather 
awful how (with the exception of my family) 
nothing else makes a whoop of difference. They 
are so interesting, so funny and above all so 
adorably simple that working amongst them is an 
ever-changing experience. At meal times we all 
have strings of stories to tell of the absurd 
things they have said or done during a single 
morning or afternoon. Most of the lads are 
very gay and care free, regular " leave-spirits." 
They show their serious side but seldom, except 
when we are down at the station waiting for the 
train. Then, all at once, the inner nature asserts 



AIX-LES-BAINS 77 

itself and they say things that bring a lump into 
your throat. I wouldn't give up experiences I 
have had during my two weeks here for anything 
in life. 

Aix-les-Bains, March 2nd, 1918. 

To-day we awoke to find a heavy blanket of 
snow over evei'ything and it is still snowing 
hard. After our few brief days of springy 
weather it surely is a sudden change. 

The boys have been coming in from their 
tramps in the mountains with bunches of ex- 
quisite yellow primroses, pussy willows, snow 
drops and all the other lovely forerunners of 
Spring. Our canteen shelves have looked like a 
flower show, and it makes one shiver to think how 
many of those posies are buried now under such 
a cold, wet blanket. 

Last night Mr. and Mrs. Francis Rogers gave 
us a delightful evening in the Casino. You may 
remember my writing you that I had heard them 
in Paris, months ago when they first came over. 
Mrs. Rogers's monologues are even better now, 
and are really quite wonderful. Mr. Rogers's 
voice sounds as though he had used it a lot, and 
I know he has of late, but it is still beautiful. 
His selection of songs was quite perfect and most 
suitable for our boys. He sang, among other 
things, " I am the Master of my Fate, I am 
the Captain of my Soul," and it really thrilled me 
through and through. 



78 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

I always sit where I can watch the boys' faces, 
and I wish some times you could be with me. 
The music puts them off their guard, and I see 
what it means when people say that their souls 
shine through their eyes. Some times I turn my 
own away; it seems a bit of a sacrilege not to, 
although the expressions are so beautiful I want 
to look and look and forget that the world can 
ever hold anything less lovely. 

Mr. Rogers sang that marvelous thing, 

" If I were drowned in the deepest sea, 

I know whose prayers would come down to me — 

Mother o' Mine." 

After all, the Mother motif reaches these lads 
when all else fails, and I wish some of the 
hundreds of lonely mothers at home could have 
seen them while Mr. Rogers was singing. 

I guess I harp a great deal on the emotional 
end of my work. Of course, these are only rare 
moments in the midst of hours and days of the 
commonplace. There is lots of jerking and teas- 
ing, and very occasionally an unkind word or look 
thrown in for balance. These lads aren't saints 
by any means, — just natural boys, thank God, 
each with a spark of the Old Mck in him without 
which they wouldn't be one-half as lovable. 
But for perseverance, grit and sheer pluck, there 
is no nation on earth that can beat the 
Americans. 




AT THE AIX RAILWAY STATION: SOLDIERS RETURNING TO 
THE TRENCHES 



AIX-LES-BAINS 79 

Aix, March 4th, 1918. 

The last few days have been very slack and so 
we have been resting and giving parties for the 
remaining permissionaires. One can do much 
more homey things when there are fewer and we 
had a regular old-fashioned game party Satur- 
day night, playing " going to Jerusalem " and 
similar infantile things, and had the most won- 
derful time. The boys adored it and as every 
one was in good spirits, there was a prodigious 
amount of laughter and noise. The French peo- 
ple think we are absolutely crazy. 

One game we played was to act out the titles of 
books. My team drew " Trilby " and as I was 
the only girl, of course I had to go into a trance 
and sing " Alice Ben Bolt." As I had a cold in 
my head, the effect was not beautiful! 

We had a lovely service yesterday morning in 
the Casino. We have all kinds of singers and 
musicians down here, supposed to be entertain- 
ing the boys, but for the moment there being only 
about a hundred boys to entertain, we are getting 
the benefit of all their accomplishments. 

To-night, about six of us are getting up a 
movie, to be acted out by a few Y. M. C. A. girls 
and some of the boys. We had a grand time mak- 
ing up a scenario last night and you can imagine 
how I enjoyed it ! It is to be a take-off on the 
usual movie plot. There is a rural scene between 
the country Lad and Lassie (I am to be the Las- 
sie!). He goes to the city to make his fortune 



80 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

at art, gets ensnared by the Siren, who has him 
paint her portrait, while Jealous Husband drinks 
quarts of whisky at home! The Ingenue waits 
in vain for letters which never come, and finally, 
when she is left penniless by the death of her 
sweet old Mother (Miss O'Connor) she follows 
to the wicked city and, of course, finds her 
David in the arms of the Siren. The Ingenue 
faints in a most graceful manner while Husband 
bursts in and shoots the Siren and his wife, and 
then draws a dagger upon the unsuspecting back 
of David ! Of course Ruby, the Ingenue, came to 
from her swoon just in time to stay the hand of 
the murderer, whereupon he plunges the weapon 
into his own heart and falls unconscious across 
the body of his dead wife. After this delightfully 
peaceful scene there can be no other ending than 
the reconciliation of the country lad and lass, 
while in the distance is heard the familiar strain 
of the wedding march ! 

This is merely the bare outline. Of course, 
there are many other details, such as love scenes 
between parlor maid and butler, etc. It's all 
perfectly crazy but I do think the boys will enjoy 
it and so far it's been loads of fun. 

I found a letter in my box the day the Marines 
left here, after their week of leave. The marines 
are always such appreciative souls for any little 
one is able to do for them. They are the best 
type of splendid, loyal men we are dealing with. 
What a joy it is to work with them! 



AIX-LES-BAINS 81 

I must stop now as we are about to rehearse 
for to-night. 

Aix, March 5th, 1918. 

Well, our movie was really a howling success 
and I guess we shall have to repeat it when there 
are more boys here. Every one did splendidly 
and even the actors themselves were so convulsed 
with laughter that they could scarcely go on. 
It was great fun as we acted in the real theater 
in the Casino with spot-lights and a whole army 
of scene shifters. 

Yet it was the most " professional " thing I 
have done and every one is suggesting that I 
leave the Y. M. C. A. for the movies ! 

The part was the usual tiresome one which is 
always shoved on me, the part of sweet innocence, 
with curls, etc. I wore my gray voile, last sum- 
mer's dress, and that round leghorn hat with the 
rosebud wreath and acted like a foolish little nut 
without an ounce of brains, but that's all I seem 
capable of doing, as I have such an expressionless 
countenance. 

The whole thing was written, rehearsed and 
acted in twenty-four hours, which is going some, 
but it was more of a success doing it quickly that 
way. 

Aix, March 9th, 1918. 
I am sitting out on a sunny bench in a corner 
of the Park, waiting for our 15th Infantry col- 



82 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

ored band to start playing. The benches round 
about are filled with expectant folk, a real con- 
glomeration of French and Americans, The 
paths are crowded with blesses, some hopping 
along legless, their canes and crutches making a 
tap-tapping on the gravel. Others are lying on 
the grass, with one foot extended and rolled in 
countless bandages. Here and there our boys 
are playing with the children, which is a habit 
they have, and you can hear the cunning little 
French voices, using their meager supply of mots 
Am^ricains. 

It's a warmish day and the whole town is out 
enjoying it. Now the band is marching up the 
street with a crowd of excited small boys bring- 
ing up the rear accompanied of course by the 
usual swarm of mongrel pups. 

These niggers play in a way that would lead 
the worst slacker to battle. There are about 
thirty of them and of course since they have been 
here they have been the wonder and the admira- 
tion of the townsfolk. The fact that they can 
make such extraordinary music insures their 
popularity and they have been made much of. 
This adulation has caused these ridiculous nig- 
gers to put on the most screaming airs and graces. 
I wish you could at this moment see the Major 
Domo puffing out his chest and waving a magnif- 
icent decorated stick ! 

We're all pretty sad, as some of our boys who 
went back from here such a short time ago have 



AIX-LES-BAINS 83 

been killed in a recent attack. It seems only 
yesterday that they waved us a cheery good-by 
and now — gone, one can't help wondering where, 
and I think we are all giving more thought to 
that mysterious " Beyond," as, slowly, one by 
one, those we know and love — pass on. Some- 
how, I can't think of Billy as dead, or in any 
dark, dismal place; he was too sunny and 
debonair while on this earth. I have a wonder- 
ful little picture of him standing beside his aero- 
plane. Such a perfect, stalwart figure. I was 
reading over his last letter yesterday, and think- 
ing how lucky I was to have had the influence of 
his life even for such a short time. 

I guess I didn't tell you that we have moved, 
and every one has taken rooms and apartments 
all over the village. Alice and I are established 
in a very nice clean house near the Casino. We 
liked rooming together first rate, but between us 
had so many things that they got hopelessly 
mixed and we ran into each other, when not in 
our respective beds! Now we each have single 
rooms near each other, nicely furnished, with a 
fine view and lots of sunshine. The whole bunch 
of women workers come here to the Casino for 
their meals and it does remind me so much of 
Farmington days — sitting at a long table and 
living on a schedule. We really have a very fine 
bunch of women now. There were a few unde- 
sirables at first but they shipped them back 
to Paris, and now we are a pretty congenial 



84 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

crowd and enjoy each other and the work enor- 
mously. 

The last two days I have gone off on wonder- 
ful all-day trips with the boys. Every excursion 
that is planned includes two or three Y. M. C. A. 
men and two or three women, and during the 
past week, work has been slack and consequently 
it has been part of our duties to go off and help 
the boys to have a good time. Quite a pleasant 
duty as they are all so nice and eager to have 
us go along. Yesterday about twenty-five went 
in three motors for an extraordinary ride, away 
up among the snows. We stopped at noon and 
ate a delicious luncheon at a little village inn, and 
then on again the whole of a glorious sunny af- 
ternoon, up and down hill, past alluring tiny vil- 
lages, tucked away at the foot of the mountains. 
The scenery was too marvelous for any use and 
the boys simply couldn't get over it. 

This morning we started out at nine-thirty, 
seventy-five of us on a picnic. We walked to the 
lake and from there took one of the Y motor 
boats and landed away down the other end for 
luncheon, and a look at the famous monastery, 
Hautecombe Abbey, which belongs to the Italian 
Royal family. It is a beautiful and picturesque 
old place. We built a fire on the side of a hill 
overlooking the lake and roasted hot dogs 
(sausages). We had the usual picnic fare and 
did ample justice to it. As I had rubbed a blis- 
ter on my heel I was allowed to go home in an 



AIX-LES-BAINS 85 

automobile and accompany the empty coffee pots 
and food hampers ! It was a glorious ride as we 
skirted the lake. I don't believe the Lord ever 
made such weather before as we are having now, 
and Spring seems at last to be on the way — 
the tall poplars are putting forth bewitching 
small leaves and everything is so beautiful. I 
feel as though I should burst. 

Mr. and Mrs. John Craig have arrived here 
from the States with a real American Stock Com- 
pany. They are putting on a series of New York 
successes and started off last night with " Baby 
Mine." Naturally it scored a tremendous hit, 
and I wish you could have seen those boys, rock- 
ing and doubling up with laughter. It was the 
best part of the show. 

Aix-les-Bains, March 16th, 1918. 
I have gotten a better idea from your recent 
letters of the feeling and viewpoint in the States, 
one gets so out of touch without the home news- 
papers. I am thankful that the country, as a 
whole, is aware of the inadequate equipment 
among our troops over here and that the lack of 
preparedness at this stage of the game is being 
shown up. Here we run up against it all the 
time. Every day I hear new stories from the 
boys who have been sent into the lines only half 
equipped and some without even overcoats, in this 
bitter weather ! It does seem unpardonable that 
this first contingent of the expeditionary forces 



86 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

should fall short on supplies when you are all 
being so heavily taxed at home. 

We are still more idle than we want lo be, but 
understand that next week the army is to begin 
granting leaves to the men in the S. O. S. (Ser- 
vice of Supplies) until more of the boys at the 
Front can be spared. For the moment, of course, 
no one from " out there " can think of anything 
besides holding the Germans. Ed is now, from 
latest reports, absolutely in the thick of it, but 
as cheerful and funny as ever. 

Please don't let the moonlight nights frighten 
you on my account, we are far from either gun or 
airship and in quite the safest part of France. 
Moonlight nights you must think of me as stand- 
ing on my little balcony, drinking in the beauty 
of these mountains. Naturally my thoughts are 
always up the line now, where the white nights 
stand for such different and horrible things, and 
my days seem to have grown into one long silent 
prayer. 

Aix, April 28th, 1918. 
I had a bully letter yesterday from Ed who has 
been sent back to General Headquarters on de- 
tached service. Of course, he is perfectly furious 
to be yanked out of the trenches and away from 
his men, but I, for one, am thankful! There 
are so many people to worry about that it is a 
blessing when those who are out of danger, let 
you know it. 



AIX-LESBAINS 87 

Aix, April 30th, 1918. 

Some days it seems hard to realize that there 
is a war raging close to us, so shut in are we by 
these mountains. If it weren't for the papers 
and the heartrending casualty lists, one might 
almost forget for a moment. As it is, the extraor- 
dinary peace and quiet make the Front seem in 
another world and I am thankful that it is so, 
for the boys who are here for their week of rest 
do get the complete change which is so necessary. 

As for the girls, it is as though we were run- 
ning a mammoth house party, only we entertain 
on schedule. 

For instance, each morning we are given a list 
of the different things that have been planned 
for us to do. This is the way my schedule read 
to-day : 

9 to 10:30 Serve at the Canteen, 
10:30 to 12:00 Play tennis with three men (Names 
written below.) 
2 to 5 Serve at the Canteen, 

5 to 7 Take a walk with (Names given) 

7 to 11:30 Dance. 

This has been a very busy day and some are not 
quite as full although we're generally trotting 
about from one appointment to another most all 
the time. You have no idea how strange it is to 
do things like these " by order " and know that 
even if you don't feel like it or cordially dislike 
some of the men you are dated up with, you have 
to do it just the same and start off with a beaming 



88 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

smile, to laugh, talk and joke yourself and them 
through three or four hours on end ! Sometimes 
it's pretty hard although it's the best training in 
the world, especially for a lady with moods and 
who has been spoiled all her life — like me! 
However, if you could see how the boys adore 
the place and read the letters that come after 
they have gone, you could understand why the 
work is inspiring, and why we'd be willing to 
keep it up night and day if it would make them 
any happier. Lately and since the warm 
weather, it has been one endless round of pic- 
nics, motor trips, boating, tennis, games, dances 
and walks. The out-of-door world is very allur- 
ing. The leaves are all out and the meadows, 
brilliant patches of tiny wild flowers. My room 
looks like a posy shop. In a way, it seems heart- 
less to be enjoying the Spring as intensely as I 
am, and yet, as my job at present is to smile 
and smile and keep smiling, I just naturally have 
to push out some of the somber and the tragic, 
fill up my life with flowers and the things I love, 
and try and make some of these lads forget that 
beyond those hazy blue mountains a world war 
is raging. 

Aix, May 10th, 1918. 

I've been very busy to-day learning a new 

dance. The weekly vaudeville troop arrived from 

Paris minus one number and as Mr. Carrell and 

I have danced on several Stunt Night programs, 



AIX-LES-BAINS 89 

they asked us to fill in for the missing number. 
So we are on for a week and we were so thankful 
that we had something that could be put right on 
to fill in. This little taste of stage life under 
such delightful auspices, is great fun. I have a 
dressing room all my own, No. 5, and Alice has 
been an angel, acts as maid and helps me 
change my costume between our two numbers. 
We are billed with the professionals all over 
town, " Miss Baldwin & Mr. Carrell." It 
looked too absurd. 

I come on right after the " trained cats " and, 
while waiting in the wings, dodge the " snake 
charmer's " serpents ! She has two about twelve 
yards long apiece and they wriggle and glide 
around behind the stage and appear suddenly in 
the most unexpected manner ! The snake charm- 
er keeps them between times rolled up neatly in 
a lunch basket with a cloth drawni tightly over 
the top ! One of the acrobats told me she doped 
them. Sometimes I get so interested behind the 
scenes that I almost forget to go on when my 
turn comes. These vaudeville artists are the 
most kind-hearted of mortals and have been so 
good to me and encouraged me in the nicest way 
the first night, telling me to " keep smiling and 
not be scared." One comedian has been es- 
pecially good to me. — He white-washes his face 
and wears a green nose and a suit with huge 
black and white checks! 



90 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

Aix, May 16th, 1918. 

Now I can say that I have danced before 
royalty ! 

Last night we had a gala performance for 
Xing Albert of Belgium's sister, the Duchess of 
Vendome. She sat in the royal box, with her 
young daughter and several ladies-in-waiting. 

After the theater we had the pleasure of meet- 
ing her and she was most gracious and kind. 
They all stayed to watch the usual dancing and 
games and laughed until the tears rolled down 
their cheeks. You see, it is a rather amusing 
sight to watch grown-up men and women play- 
ing kindergarten games and getting as excited 
as though they were watching a bull fight. 
Every one is cheering and jumping up and down 
and it is funny. 

The dancing is almost as humorous. We have 
only twenty girls and there are always two 
thousand or more men ! Every time the whistle 
blows they can " cut in." The consequence is 
that a girl is literally hurled from one man to 
another while dozens of eager hands try and 
snatch her away from him. Of course it is all 
pretty rough and one comes out of it every night 
with black and blue spots, but how the boys 
enjoy it ! Poor dears, the hob-nailed boots were 
never designed for dancing pumps and the soles 
are so thick that they can step on my feet and 
never know it at all ! The other night after five 
minutes of acute agony I said to the boy I was 



AIX-LES-BAINS 91 

dancing with : " Would you just as soon dance on 
your own feet for a while? " He laughed so loud 
you could hear him all over the room, and good- 
naturedly did as I suggested. In spite of our 
little trials it is the most wonderful experience 
you can possibly imagine, and I never get over my 
luck in being here. 

Yesterday the biggest of the Y boats made her 
maiden voyage on the Lac de Bourget, carrying 
all the Y girls and about three hundred soldiers. 
We had luncheon on board and early in the after- 
noon landed at the end of the lake for a game of 
baseball. It was a cloudless day and we all had 
a ripping time. Walking home with about fifty 
young gentlemen, we passed one of the famous 
Paris hat shops ( or a branch thereof ) . I say we 
passed it, but we didn't for we entered en masse 
and I bought me a coral pink floppy garden hat ! 
I've never worn such a color in my life but I am 
so tired of gray and blue uniforms that I could 
buy a flame colored traveling suit! I wear this 
very giddy chapeau when off duty and fairly 
revel in it! 

It's been a gorgeous warm Sunday and a busy 
one. This p. m. we gave the first of a series 
of Sunday teas. We had every imaginable thing 
to eat and drink, served on the big terrace of 
the Y Casino. The orchestra played at one end 
and the leave-men were there in full force, all 
beaming and enjoying themselves. I've had a 
very crowded week and two young gentlemen to 



92 CANTEENING OVEKSEAS 

manage who, not having seen " an honest-to-God 
American girl " or anything like the U. S. A. for 
nine months, promptly decided, on arriving here 
that I was the " one and only " lady for them ! 
I had an awful time keeping them apart as they 
disliked each other cordially ! On the one occa- 
sion when they met in my presence, one of them 
generously offered to " spread the map " of the 
other; which, being interpreted, means either 
complete or partial disfigurement to one and 
sometimes both parties concerned ! 

I explained carefully, each day of the eight 
they spent here, that " it would all come out in 
the wash " and that there were scores of deserv- 
ing females at home, far superior to me. How- 
ever, the deserving f's are three thousand miles 
away, so I was put to it ! To-day they left, each 
swearing undying devotion and fidelity, and al- 
though they were nice boys, I find myself draw- 
ing a long sigh of relief! 

Aix-les-Bains, June 7th, 1918. 
I've had a flying trip up to Paris since I wrote 
last, and had my first experience with Big Ber- 
tha. The weather was very hot and sultry while 
I was there and each evening the sun went down 
in a blaze of glory leaving a broad splash of 
blood red in the sky. The whole atmosphere felt 
electric and decidedly menacing. Of all the fiend- 
ish tools and methods the Boches have tried, I 
think Bertha is the cleverest and the most under- 



AIX-LES-BAINS 93 

mining to morale. She runs as regularly as a 
clock. Every twenty minutes a shell lands in 
some part of Paris and spreads death and de- 
struction all about. 

As usual the French maintain a smiling, calm 
exterior and yet the very fact that the guns have 
actually got the range on the beloved Paris is a 
bitter and terrible blow. However, they'd rather 
die than show they are the least bit daunted in 
spite of the latest outrage. It is interesting to 
watch the people in the streets, when a shell falls 
too close to be comfortable. They jump a bit, 
look at each other, laugh and shrug their shoul- 
ders, with some remark about " how lucky that it 
didn't drop at our feet," or " we did well to walk 
fast or we would surely have been in direct line." 
Every one guys the next person and so they walk 
on looking now and again at their watches to 
see when the next shell is due. Surrounded by 
such spirit and pluck one simply cannot be afraid, 
although during my few days in Paris, Bertha 
was booming all day and there were air raids 
every night. However, one gets accustomed to 
anything and since I got back to this peaceful 
place, the intense quiet has been almost oppres- 
sive! 

The time is certainly a critical one and al- 
though one hears only scraps and rumors, our 
hearts are in our mouths, and things look pretty 
black. People with small children and every 
one who could get away have left Paris, all things 



94 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

of great value have been removed and the govern- 
ment offices are said to be ready to move south at 
a moment's notice. Huge wagons of furniture 
and household goods are leaving the city in great 
numbers. 

This morning's paper tells of a German sub- 
marine in American waters. Of course we are 
furious though hardly surprised. It seems to be 
just another demonstration of trying every kind 
of devilment in this desperate effort to disable the 
Allies from every angle at once. 

You can fancy with what intense interest and 
anxiety we watch for extras and life has become 
just one breathless time of waiting from one bul- 
letin to the next. Every one has so many, many 
friends and relatives on the long line, and 
hundreds of conflicting rumors and reports come 
in constantly until one is distracted for a bit of 
authentic news. 

The Sammies are right in the " thick of it " 
now and doing better, especially the Marines, 
even than was expected of them. It's all very 
wonderful and these days make one prouder than 
ever of being an American. 

Aix, June 12th, 1918. 

New York, I see by the papers, is in darkness. 
How strange it must seem to you all. 

Over here everything seems to be happening at 
once. Of course, you have seen by now that 
my Marines have made an everlasting name for 



AIX-LES-BAINS 95 

themselves and that it looks as though they had 
turned the tide. The whole of France is ringing 
with their praises and I am so proud and happy 
I could burst! Their extraordinar}^ record of 
the past week is especially wonderful news to 
those who know how patiently they awaited their 
chance. I do hope they haven't been unmerci- 
fully cut to pieces. The interest in every tiny 
village about here is intense, especially now that 
the new offensive has started on the American 
Front. I am of course very keen to get up nearer 
the lines, and perhaps before long I shall have a 
chance. 

Do write about things at home and how people 
are standing the terrible casualty lists. We hear 
absolutely nothing of home morale, I suppose be- 
cause we are so put to it to keep up our own. 
I believe you really get more news of the grim 
doings up the line than we do, and probably real- 
ize as much as we that the climax is rapidly ap- 
proaching. 



CHAPTER V 

THE LORRAINE SECTOR 

Paris, June 28th, 1918. 

Don't be surprised at the heading on this 
letter, I am quite safe and sound and haven't been 
expelled from the Y ! I am, however, on my way 
to a new post and one which ought to be most 
interesting. In the Y. M. C. A. they try and 
move you ever so often, to keep you from going 
stale on the work. The other day our chief came 
down to Aix and decided that four of us who 
had been there five months needed a change ot 
work. Consequently, Alice, two others, and 
yours truly are here for reassignment. 

The strain of Leave-Area work, the continual 
entertaining is really worse than manual labor, 
and I can see that we need to get off for a time. 
The change is for the sake of greater eflftciency 
in the work, and naturally that's what we all 
want and are working towards. 

Paris is terribly quiet. No Bertha — no 
bombs — I scarcely know it ! 

En Route from Paris to Baccarat, 

July 3rd, 1918. 
Behold us actually on our way to what the 
Paris Office calls "an unusual and most inter- 

96 



THE LOKRAINE SECTOR 97 

esting post " and after days of red tape and or- 
ders, we are at last on the train which will take 
us via ChMons, Nancy and Lun6ville, — names 
that have become so famous of late and which 
fill us with a vague feeling of thrill as though 
at last we were to get a bit closer to those 
trenches of which we have heard so much. I 
don't want you to think that we are looking for- 
ward to our work as an exciting adventure. 
Nothing could be farther from the ideal for 
which we are striving, but of course one can't 
help but be thankful for the great privilege which 
has come after so many months of waiting, and 
our spirits are high and somehow I feel as though 
I were opening the door to greater service and 
opportunity than ever before. 

Our train has jogged along through this hot 
day, stopping here and there in an aimless way 
as if to get its breath and mop its brow before 
starting on through the baked and sultry coun- 
tryside. Of course, we haven't missed a trick and 
at ChMons and Nancy saw the first signs of 
wreckage and ruin. 

It is now late in the afternoon. We are on 
the last lap of our long journey, having just left 
Lun^ville. Before long, we shall be in Baccarat, 
where the Y Headquarters for this region are 
situated. This Vosges country is exquisite al- 
though the small villages show terrible signs of 
demolition. The Germans have been here, — it 



98 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

is easy enough to see that — although a peasant 
woman in our compartment says, " not since 
1914," except, she adds, " les avions," which 
have made night hideous ever since. 

It begins to look more warlike. The roads are 
covered with cleverly made camouflage and the 
small houses near the rail heads are painted in 
patterns of bright colors. The open cars that 
carry the great guns are entirely draped with 
these wonderfully wrought coverings of leaves 
and vines made of ancient rags and scraps and 
tinted in the most realistic shades and tones. 
Few women are traveling this way and our uni- 
forms and American accent cause great interest 
at the small stations along the way. 

Baccarat, July 4th, 1918. 

We arrived last night at about seven o'clock 
but it was still light enough to see the town which 
is mostly a heap of crumbling stone and ruin. — 
The main street hasn't a building that is whole. 
Awful as it seems, it is wonderfully beauti- 
ful. The dust is thick and the wind blows it 
about in sheets. The sun was just setting, giv- 
ing a blood-red background to the ruined walls 
and turrets. It reminded me of those ominous, 
realistic posters, which are everywhere showing 
the wreckage of war. Up to that moment, they 
had seemed an exaggeration. 

I am at present writing amidst great confusion. 
Of course there not being many houses intact, 



THE LORRAINE SECTOR 99 

the billets are few and far between. So, for the 
moment, the four of us are making ourselves com- 
fortable in a small hotel which the Y has just 
taken over to be used as main Canteen, ware- 
house, and general offices. This delectable spot 
is entirely whole but, as it hasn't been used for 
three years, is in a state of dirt impossible to 
describe. The four of us — that is, Alice, 
Westy, Squibby and I — have taken one room 
with two beds and a bureau in it and are pro- 
ceeding to get settled. The windows have to be 
open for air and as the street below is the route 
used to the Front, the traffic of trucks and am- 
munition carts is terrific. The dust and flies 
blow into our room in great clouds and we are 
covered from head to foot with grime and dirt. 
However, we are getting our variousi blanket 
rolls and bags unpacked and will be in some sort 
of order before night. 

I would give my eye-tooth for a bowl of hot 
water, a clean towel and some soap. But water 
is hard to procure and there is nothing to get it 
in or pour it into for the moment! So I will 
have to go dirty I guess. 

Early this morning we went to mass; as 
Alice was going. I am thankful that we tagged 
along. The Catholic Church here, as in every 
place in France, is the most beautiful thing in the 
village, and the nucleus around which everything 
revolves. The building isi quite lovely. Very 
simple in architecture but beautiful lines and a 



100 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

few good statues. It is almost entirely intact 
although it stands in the center of the most 
ruined part of the town ! 

When we went in, I was staggered at the huge 
congregation. Then I saw that the church was 
entirely filled with American soldiers. We were 
the only women. 

The early morning sunlight was streaming 
through the stained glass windows and lighting 
up hundreds of bowed heads. There wasn't a 
sound but the soft notes of the organ. I never 
knew how expressive the back of a man's head 
could be. All these boys so terribly intent upon 
mass that was being said in a language few of 
them could understand, and yet the great com- 
mon bond of religion that goes deeper than mere 
spoken words, had drawn them together, as 
though they realized it might be their last chance 
to pray in God's house. I can't begin to explain 
the effect it had on me. In the few moments of 
quiet before the service was over, the air seemed 
alive with fragments of prayer and in the intense, 
vibrating stillness, I have never felt God nearer. 

It was a sweet way to start my new work and 
somehow I feel as though I could move moun- 
tains. 

Baccarat, July 10th, 1918. 
The other girls have been stationed in three 
little villages near by and I have been kept here 
In Baccarat where, for the present, I have a can- 



THE LORRAINE SECTOR 101 

teen of my own in what is called tlie French half 
of the town, the other half being entirely occu- 
pied by the Headquarters staff of the Division to 
which we are attached. There is already a Y 
canteen started over there so I am installing my- 
self in what was a corner saloon, the dirtiest, 
darkest place imaginable with very un-Y-like 
ribald scenes on the walls. I hope we can put 
a coat of light colored paint on the somber wood- 
work and brighten it up a bit. In spite of its 
unattractive appearance it is always full of 
soldiers and when I appear early in the morning 
with my mammoth key, there is always a long 
line of boys waiting for me to open up shop. 
This isn't to be my permanent job; I am going 
to help run the canteen in the Y Hotel as soon as 
it is opened. It will undoubtedly be much 
larger than this one and we shall be able to take 
care of more men. 

I have procured an excellent billet in the house 
of an ancient French lady. My room is beauti- 
fully clean and scoured daily by my landlady's 
maid " Josephine " who looks about a hundred 
and fifty. These two old dames remained in 
Baccarat all during the German invasion in 1914 
and a German general slept in my room ; it ought 
to give me bad dreams but somehow I manage to 
sleep like a log! Madame M. is a lady of some 
social position in these parts, shown by the fact 
that she has a servant to look after her and a 
little plot of ground behind her house where grow 



102 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

the most bewitching old-fashioned flowers. She 
has snow-white hair and large brown eyes that 
always wear a half frightened look, as well they 
may, for the death-dealing German planes 
have harassed this poor soul night and day for 
four years. She told me that in 1914 she and her 
faithful old servant were among the very few who 
remained in their little town. She said " Mais, 
mademoiselle, I could not leave my little house, 
the home where my husband had lived and died 
and which held all the beautiful memories of my 
life. I had heard of course what those ' sales 
Boches ' had done to the old women and the 
children in the town near here but as I said to 
Josephine ' I will take my chance with the Ger- 
mans, but leave my house, never ! ' " So the 
entire population of the town was hustled into 
safety and very few civilians remained to see 
their homes demolished. The French soldiers 
knew they were outnumbered and yet that didn't 
keep them from fighting to the last ditch and for 
four days the terrible massacre continued and the 
town was shelled unmercifully. Madame and 
Josephine, hidden in the cellar, heard the whistle 
of shells and the explosions all around until it 
seemed a miracle that the roof wasn't torn off 
their house and that the brick walls didn't fall 
in on top of them. The Germans finally ad- 
vanced to the edge of the river which separates 
the two parts of the town and then it became a 
hand-to-hand affair until a huge shell burst in 



THE LORRAINE SECTOR 103 

the center of the bridge, blowing to atoms several 
hundred French soldiers who were attempting 
to hold it against the enemy. Madame says the 
river was filled with floating bodies and red with 
blood for days afterwards. The Germans threw 
a hurriedly constructed passageway of boards 
across the stream and only then did the French 
retire to the country directly behind Baccarat, 
outnumbered three or four times by the advanc- 
ing Boches. Suddenly, the shelling ceased and 
Madame knew that the enemy had been victori- 
ous. She said, " I took my courage in my hands ; 
I put on my Sunday dress of black silk; then 
walked out of my door with my head high and met 
the German staff oflflcers as they came up the 
street." I could visualize it all. The stern hard 
faces of the Boche staff, their horses brought to a 
sudden stop before the house of this ancient sil- 
ver-haired gentlew^oman who stood on her own 
door step indomitable and unafraid before what 
she knew were the most bestial and heartless 
brutes in all history. Somehow something must 
have touched them, although it is hard to believe 
that they possess a single chord that can be 
touched by the big and noble. However, sh6 
told me that they didn't molest or hurt her in 
any way and finally when they were forced to 
retire after some months by the then victorious 
French, they thanked her for her hospitality. 

Since then, she has had French officers billeted 
in her house and one or two Americans who won 



104 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

her old heart with boxes of chocolate and little 
packages of sweet cookies, such as she hasn't had 
since the beginning of the war. 

Baccarat, July 15th, 1918. 

I am now working in the big new canteen at 
Headquarters, and believe me, it is one busy 
place. I'm on duty only eight hours a day but 
during that time I work like mad and scarcely 
have time to breathe. There is a line that files 
in and past our counter and then out through a 
farther door. That line never stops from the 
time we are open in the morning until it gets 
dark at night. I am kept hopping like a grass- 
hopper and bed looks pretty good to me at the 
end of the day. It's a fine life though, just 
work and food and sleep and I am thriving and 
growing fat on it ! 

We are at present attached to the 77th Division 
which is, as you know, the New York drafted 
bunch. It is, I believe, a unique division and to 
me a most interesting one. It looks as though 
they had taken a cross section of New York City 
and divided it into Battalions, Regiments, Com- 
panies and all the different units and branches of 
the service which go to make up a division. The 
officers are almost entirely from the " four 
hundred " so called, and the enlisted men from 
the lower East Side, Italians, Polish Jews, 
Greeks, Serbs, in fact, representatives from most 
every country in the world. Many of them can't 



THE LOKRAINE SECTOR 105 

even speak English intelligibly and I have been 
thankful for my scraps of Italian, French and 
even German to make them understand me. 
They are a ferocious looking lot for the most 
part and always sure that I am trying to skin 
them. It's rather pathetic and I try to be patient 
and make them understand that the Y may have 
made mistakes unintentionally but that we are 
not in France to profiteer. It's a bit discour- 
aging at the end of a long hot day to have some 
boy throw the change you have given him down 
on the counter and announce in a loud voice 
that the " Y girl " is trying to cheat him. They 
haven't learned the value of French money, not 
having been over here long and are tremendously 
suspicious of what they call " that tin Chinese 
money " ( the French have punctured their 
smaller coins in the center in order to save 
metal ) and are always sure that you are trying to 
put something over on them. However, there 
are many who make up for the disagreeable 
ones. Two or three Irish lads with merry blue 
eyes and the most alluring of brogues are gener- 
ally hanging over the end of the counter and are 
very much my friends. They are always right 
on the spot when there is a case of tobacco to be 
opened or heavy things to lift and have even 
helped me squeeze lemons ! The work is a never 
ceasing joy to me on account of these bright 
spots and many others that turn up constantly to 
make me happier than I have ever been in my 



106 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

life. No one who hasn't tried it, knows what a 
satisfaction a long day's work can bring. Thank 
God for the opportunity. 

Baccarat, July 20th, 1918. 

The American " come-back " at Chateau 
Thierry, beginning day before yesterday, is, of 
course, the one subject of conversation here. No 
words can describe one's pride and relief. Our 
boys have made themselves immortal. France 
will never forget their grit and pluck — quali- 
ties characteristically American. 

Yesterday Elsie Janis came here and gave two 
shows so that no one should miss seeing her. 
The Y has taken over a big assembly hall and 
turned it into a theater. Well, I can assure you 
that every inch of that place was utilized. The 
boys had known for some days ahead that she 
was coming and, hours before the doors were 
opened, the open space in front of the building 
was massed solid. Every one was looking up at 
the clear sky and hoping that " Jerry would give 
us a rest to-night and let us enjoy Elsie without 
thought of bombs." Luckily, Jerry didn't start 
his evening strafing until just as the last show 
was out and then every one had ample time to 
run to shelter before the noise began. If he had 
known how many human birds he could have 
killed with " one stone," he undoubtedly would 
have made an earlier start from Boche-land and 
dropped a neat little bomb right on the center 



THE LORRAINE SECTOR 107 

of our theater roof ! However, for once he didn't 
spoil our fun, and Elsie was quite at her best 
and more alluring and peppy than ever, in the 
latest of Parisian models and a coquettish black 
tam with a tassel pulled down over her curls. 
Suddenly there she was, in the middle of the 
stage and to these boys to whom the white lights 
of Broadway have been the breath of life, she 
seemed a veritable piece of " little old New 
York." I thought they would tear the roof oft' 
with their wild applause and cheers, and she just 
stood there smiling until they had yelled them- 
selves hoarse. Then for an hour and a half she 
kept them rocking with laughter and once or 
twice brought them very close to tears. She 
sang, she danced, told funny stories and made 
fun of the officers and mimicked in her inimitable 
way until those boys were bodily transported 
from that dusty little French town, back to the 
atmosphere which spells home to them. In other 
words, for an hour and a half they forgot the war 
and were happy. Surely Elsie Janis is doing 
her bit if any one is, and it's a jolly big bit too ! 
The whole world seems to be in France, at 
least the masculine half of it. I meet so many 
men I know wherever I go. Baccarat hasn't been 
an exception to the rule. Some have been to Aix, 
some I knew in Bordeaux and some at home — 
centuries ago before the war. A great friend of 
Ted's and of my Buffalo friends, Chester Plimp- 
ton, is here, and I see a good deal of him. Such 



108 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

a hash in a town like this and such types ! I wish 
you could see one little Jewish second lieuten- 
ant. He is the laugh of the whole place and the 
boys tell me that if you were to slice him in half 
you would find a broad yellow streak from his 
head to his heels. Aside from that he is the 
most absurd little snob. Five minutes after he 
had met me he said, " Are you one of the Bald- 
wins of New York? " I said I hoped I was and 
since then he has decided I was worth knowing 
and I had a w^onderf ul time kidding him without 
his catching on at all! I can't quite make out 
whether he has me associated in his mind with the 
Baldwin Locomotive or the Piano, and perhaps 
he thinks the Apple was named after Dad! He 
talks with a studied carelessness about " my 
friend Teddy Roosevelt " and " When I visited 
Vincent Astor last summer, etc." The other of- 
ficers just draw him out and then go into hys- 
terics and laugh till the tears roll down their 
cheeks and the poor little nut talks on and on. 
Some day I shall mention casually that my 
mother is a washlady and my father a green 
grocer. He swallows everything whole, bait, 
hook et tout! He is a stage manager in the 
States and I'll bet my bottom dollar that he 
wears a checked suit, a brown derby and button 
boots ! 

Baccarat, July 24th, 1918. 
A wonderful moon to-night and the country 



THE LORRAINE SECTOR 109 

side transformed under its silvery radiance. We 
have had terrible nights for a week now and we 
are all more or less worn out with little sleep and 
long hot days. The German planes have been 
coming over as regularly as clock work and as 
this sector is unimportant compared to others 
farther up the line, we aren't really protected at 
all. An English aeroplane field lies some miles 
in the country behind us and they do what they 
can to help drive off the enemy planes but they 
aren't able to accomplish much as they have a 
huge area to cover and very little equipment. 

I thought I knew what an air raid was like 
after being in Paris for six months, but in com- 
parison, those raids seem like mere child's play. 
Ever since the moon was two days old, the Ger- 
mans haven't missed a single night and as soon 
as it gets dark, we hear the ominous whirr. At 
once the peace and quiet evaporate as if by magic 
and the whole atmosphere becomes alive with ex- 
pectation and silent fears. The church bell is 
set ringing furiously and the doleful sirens begin 
their wailing from several parts of the town at 
once. Windows are thrown open and people be- 
gin to call back and forth to each other. This 
lasts only a few moments and then complete 
and utter silence. Every one has gone below 
ground and the town lies waiting in the moon- 
light. 

At first I refused to take refuge " dans la cave " 
(the cellar) partly because I didn't want to be 



110 CANTEENING OVEESEAS 

smothered to death beneath the plaster and brick 
walls of the house. A direct hit seemed infi- 
nitely preferable to that, also, strange as it may 
seem, I had no desire to get out of bed. I had 
lost so much sleep and had been working so hard, 
that night generally found me thankful for a 
bed. Even if the noise of guns kept me awake I 
could rest, and the moist, chilly cellar held no 
charms ! However, I found that staying " au 
lit " in the midst of an air raid was unheard of 
in these parts and Madame M. rushed into my 
room and with tears in her eyes implored me to 
accompany her below. The poor little old lady 
fears the avions above all else and the sound of 
their motors drives her into a frenzy of fear. In 
order to calm her I threw on a few clothes and 
we stumbled down the narrow stairs and spent 
the dark hours huddled in a little group around 
a candle that sputtered and flickered in the 
draughty, damp air. Our party consists always 
of Madame, Josephine, a French officer, who is 
likewise billeted in the house, and myself. The 
first night that we spent in the cellar, he was al- 
ready below when we ladies arrived. I have 
never seen a more droll figure and I wonder now 
how I ever kept my face straight. He was attired 
in pink and white pajamas and on his head at a 
jaunty angle sat his most dressy uniform cap cov- 
ered with gold braid and pale blue broadcloth! 
Undoubtedly he felt it added dignity and a cer- 
tain modesty to his appearance. As we came 




BACCARAT. EN ROUTE TO THE CANTEEN. 



THE LOEEAINE SECTOR 111 

down lie was pacing up and down the mud floor 
in his bare feet! He told me that he had been 
through four years of war, had seen comrades 
blown to atoms right beside him. " I know what 
these bombs can do, I have seen with my two 
eyes, it is folly not to seek shelter in a raid, so 
when I hear the Boches coming, I leap from my 
bed et je me sauve, Mademoiselle/^ I felt that he 
was right and that the French must be thinking 
some of us very children who are still taking 
war as a game, and looking upon our folly and 
daring as bravery. Surely no one has any busi- 
ness to waste his life. For the first and perhaps 
the last time our lives are infinitely important 
and useful. 

This officer is really a very good sort and en- 
tertains us during the long hours with tales of 
all sorts. We discuss the war at great length 
and try and keep our minds occupied and off of 
the terrible sounds overhead. It's great for my 
French and I am; improving. Sometimes the 
noise is deafening, the anti-air-craft guns keep 
up a continuous fire and yet the Germans don't 
seem to be the least bit daunted and fly just 
above the tops of the trees, placing their bombs 
with the most pitiless accuracy. Last night three 
houses in this neighborhood were hit and in the 
old mill, half a block away, a young woman and 
her little girl were killed. It was a ghastly few 
hours. Madame had one fit of hysterics right 
after another and threw herself about the cellar 



112 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

in a spasm of fear, trembling violently and moan- 
ing and crying. It was one of the most pathetic 
and terrible sights I have ever seen. We tried to 
quiet her but as the bombs were literally falling 
all about us, there wasn't much one could say 
to cheer her. When one plane had dropped its 
supply of horror it would dash back and in ten 
minutes another would be swooping and sailing 
above us and the crash and uproar would begin 
again. In order that they may see better to do 
their hideous work, they drop a flare which illum- 
inates the town as though it were day. By the 
time the strong light has burned itself out sev- 
eral bombs can be neatly placed. 

The raid generally begins about nine o'clock 
and the planes come over in rapid succession un- 
til dawn. It is extraordinary what an effect the 
sound of the German motor has upon one. The 
noise even at a great distance will wake me out 
of a sound sleep whereas our own planes can fly 
right past my window and I never know it. 

This morning the town is really upset. Last 
night's raid was the worst yet. Two of our sol- 
diers in the Evacuation Hospital were killed and 
a great number of French. A bomb lit across 
the street from the Y and this morning I found 
all my canteen windows smashed into a thousand 
pieces. The Boches dropped several notes all 
over the streets written in French which said 
" If you think last night's raid a bad one, wait 
for to-night. We will break all records." The 



THE LORRAINE SECTOR 113 

consequence is that the morale is not very good, 
every one worn out with no sleep, horror piled 
on horror, and the anticipation of worse things 
to-night. 

Later — Same day. 

To-day is a sizzler, quite the worse we've had. 
The dust pours in at the windows and the can- 
teen is black with flies. We've been making lem- 
onade for hundreds of hot, tired soldiers. They 
come in white with dust and the perspiration 
running down their cheeks. No cotton uniforms 
to be issued this summer; the boys have to wear 
their woolly winter ones, poor darlings, and 
can't even take their blouses off. The result is 
that if this weather continues the entire A. E. F. 
will be reduced to a grease spot ! 

We have made a hundred and sixty liters of 
lemonade to-day; the canteen has been jammed 
to the doors since early morning with men, 
tongues hanging out and clammering for some- 
thing " cold and wet." The boys stand around 
in a huge ring while we make the lemonade, of- 
fering all kinds of advice and suggestions ; I have 
quite a time keeping them on the other side of the 
counter; they all want to help but we can't use 
more than three stalwart and professional lemon 
squeezers ! When the huge tank is finally filled, 
there are loud cheers from all present and it is 
worth anything to see the gusto with which they 
dispatch the lemonade down their dusty throats. 



114 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

How I love this place, — it's perfectly great be- 
ing attached to a division. 

Westy, Alice, Squibby, who have canteens in 
little villages nearby, are in here quite frequently 
and we compare notes and discuss methods, and 
our various problems at length. I imagine some 
of us will shortly be sent back to Aix as our 
month of change is nearing its end. I can't tell 
you how I hate the thought of leaving, although 
of course I want to be where I am most needed. 
The simplicity of this place is a great contrast 
to Aix and does appeal to me so much more than 
the gay whirl down there with the Casino and all 
its marble halls and broad terraces. There the 
boys come and go and you do all you can to cheer 
them, but here they aren't on leave and are up 
against the real thing, and, if possible, need a 
bit of feminine companionship more than any- 
where else. Also one belongs to a unit and after 
a while you come to feel a very distinct sense of 
proprietorship, your hopes and fears and special 
prayers are centered about the men of your out- 
fit and their failures and successes are very much 
your own. O ! I do hope that the Y will let me 
stay right where I am. I have made up my 
mind of course to be a good soldier whatever 
comes, but I am hoping, hoping hard every min- 
ute that I shall be allowed to stay. 

Baccarat, July 25th, 1918. 
Last night right after the canteen closed, some 



THE LORRAINE SECTOR 115 

of us decided to walk out to a neighboring hill- 
side and watch the expected raid from a dis- 
tance. We knew we should be up all night any- 
way and all had grown a bit weary of their re- 
spective cellars and dugouts. 

It was the most gorgeous night I have ever 
seen, a full moon which eliminated practically all 
the stars with its brilliance. We climbed up and 
up through the silvery woods and at last reached 
the summit. Nearby was an enormous natural 
grotto cut out of the side of the hill. We sud- 
denly realized that the place was full of people; 
their voices could be heard distinctly and walk- 
ing to the entrance of the cave we looked in. 
About fifteen or twenty families had settled them- 
selves for the night. The ground was covered 
with blankets upon which lay sleeping children 
of all ages. Some of the babies didn't look more 
than a few weeks old. Here and there at the 
back of the cave were lights ; near the mouth one 
could see quite plainly. There were almost no 
men, just mothers who had brought their little 
ones away from the menaced town. 

We sat near the cave for hours, looking down 
on the roofs of Baccarat, the river glistening be- 
low us in the moonlight. It was all marvelously 
beautiful, utter silence everywhere. As I say, 
we sat there for hours. The Germans didn't 
come. They didn't have to. Those diabolical 
notes of warning had spoiled the peace of mind 
of the whole town, It had sent the anxious 



116 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

young mothers with their babies to sleep in the 
woods and the hilltops expecting to find their 
homes smashed to atoms on their return. Those 
who stayed in the town spent the night straining 
their ears for the dreaded sound and scanning 
the heavens for the enemy that had warned them 
of his coming. The suspense was even worse 
than if he had come. Is there anything those 
keen, heartless Germans have not thought of to 
torture the minds and bodies of this harassed 
people ! 

To-day every one is worn to a frazzle from 
apprehension and nervous exhaustion and un- 
doubtedly to-night will bring a fleet of enemy 
planes. But, as these heroic souls say, " one 
must be patient, c'est la Guerre/^ 

Baccarat, August 5th, 1918. 
Since my last letter there have been great 
changes. In fact, the 77th Division was ordered 
up the line and moved out bodily within a few 
days. The 37th Division (Ohio National Guard) 
had replaced them and we are now attached to 
them and adjusting ourselves to an entirely new 
bunch of men. The Y. M. C. A. staff of the T7th 
didn't take any women with them at all; they 
said the place they were going to was too danger- 
ous. Of course, we were much disappointed and 
it was hard seeing them march away without us. 
However, our new division looks fine and I like 
the type of men of which it is made up. They 



THE LORRAINE SECTOR IIT 

have just been paid and you can therefore imagine 
that we have done a rushing business. To-day 
has been full. I started in at 8:30, was on the 
canteen until noon, then made two hundred and 
fifty doughnuts to be sent out to-night and dis- 
tributed in the trenches. Lately we have made 
between us about a thousand daily and when the 
night trucks go up the line with the supplies 
they take them along. It's only a few kilometers 
to the front line trenches and as this is a quieter 
sector than some, the boys get a chance to in- 
dulge in a doughnut or two, while they keep 
watch. 

After my batch of doughnuts was done, I 
helped our Y treasurer, mending money, etc. until 
six ; then on the canteen again until eight. These 
evening hours are always our busiest ones and, 
in the midst of a huge rush, our Y chief came 
back from Paris with some mail. It was quite 
maddening. There was a big bunch for me and 
I laid it under the end of my counter where I 
could look at it while I worked, hoping that I'd 
get a second to peek inside at least one of the 
home letters of which there were three. How- 
ever, the " second " never came as I worked 
straight through until the M. P. marched in and 
ordered lights out. (We're not supposed to keep 
our place open after dark as that necessitates two 
or three candles and since the recent bad air- 
raids, one can't so much as light a match, except- 
ing behind closed blinds.) 



118 CANTEENING OVEESEAS 

Letters mean so mueli in this tiny, out-of-the- 
way spot, that no one who hasn't experienced it 
can realize what an awful thing it is to have your 
mail sitting there before you and not be able to 
read it ! However, I have made up for it. When 
I got home to-night I lighted two candles, an un- 
heard-of extravagance, and have just had a won- 
derful hour of home atmosphere. It's a dark 
night and I guess the Germans won't be over. I 
feel very peaceful and comfortably installed in 
my big bed. In the village street below me a 
bunch of French people are gathered to gossip 
and enjoy the cool evening air. Now I can hear 
the tramp, tramp of marching feet on the hard 
white road outside. Two or three companies of 
Sammies are passing on their way up the line 
and how they are singing ! 

"0 — hio! — hio! 

We'll win the war or know the reason why. 

And when the battle's over 

We'll buy a bottle o' booze 

And we'll drink to old Ohio 

'Til we wobble in our shoes." 

They've passed now and the sound grows 
fainter and very sweet in the distance. The song 
has already become familiar to me and is con- 
stantly sung by all the various outfits of this fine 
Division. 

All's quiet. The townsfolk have turned in and 
I am about to follow their example. It gives one 
such a proud feeling of security to know that a 



THE LORRAINE SECTOR 119 

long column of strong khaki-clad figures are 
marching out into the night to stand between, and 
singing as they go ! 

Baccarat, August 15th, 1918. 

For three days now we have been running our 
canteen under an awning on the main village 
street. The reason for this is that our canteen 
room is being all built over. First an enormous 
counter that runs the whole length, with a wealth 
of shelves underneath for all our supplies. Then 
the walls are being papered in a cheerful yellow 
tone and the windows are to have strips of bright 
chintz. Very gay and pretty it will be. 

In the meantime, no county fair ever caused 
such a commotion as we do. The spectacle of 
jeunes filles Americaines actually selling things 
out on the open street is simply too much for the 
absurd inhabitants of this town. The first day 
that we opened our out-of-doors counter the sol- 
diers could scarcely fight their way through to 
buy what they wanted, so surrounded were we by 
the gaping population. They stood in a large 
ring with their eyes saucer-shape and their 
mouths wide open. We got perfectly hysterical 
before the day was over. It's been rather awful, 
being the center of attention this way ; we sha'n't 
be sorry to move back into the shelter of four 
walls where only American eyes can look at us. 
We've been working on our street corner amid 
clouds of dust and flies. This, added to millions 



120 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

of small children and the usual congregation of 
yapping dogs makes it very amusing, though 
trying at times. However, I love the variety and 
am so thankful that the Y Headquarters in Paris 
are letting me stay on for a time. Perhaps if 
I lie low and say nothing they will forget I am 
out here, and I'll just move along " up " with 
the Division when it goes. That would be great. 
Much to our regret, Chester's outfit has left 
and will shortly be operating on the Toul Front. 
Work, being engineering, will necessarily be of 
a dangerous nature. 

Baccarat, September 5th, 1918. 
The papers have been a never-ending wonder 
the past few days and the news from the front is 
pretty fine. The future certainly looks full of 
promise. Of course, every one is jumping to con- 
clusions at once and talking about spending 
Christmas in Berlin or back in the States ! That 
of course is too good to be true, but peace doesn't 
seem over a year away and it makes one feel 
pretty happy. The end certainly is in sight and 
already I find myself planning busily about what 
I am going to do when I get home. I think I'll 
spend the first week just looking hard at all my 
family ; after that I'll eat all the things I haven't 
had for fourteen months. Also, I shall never 
again wear sensible war-like clothes. No more 
tailor-made waists and skirts for mine. I'll live 



THE LORRAINE SECTOR 121 

in chiffon gowns, the sheerest of silk stockings 
and thin soled pumps ! 

This little place may not be our headquarters 
for very much longer. The Division is going to 
move soon, at least so it is rumored, and thank 
goodness the Y and its force go with them. We 
don't know where we shall be headed for, except 
that it's up the line and may be any of three 
fronts. I shall now have the experience of trav- 
eling along as a regular part of this army of 
ours and I know it's going to be the most inter- 
esting yet. It's quite wonderful knowing so 
many, many members of this huge Division. 
Wherever one goes the streets, the shops are full 
of soldiers and they're always covered with 
smiles; it makes me feel the whole world is my 
friend and it is a nice sensation. 

Naturally this talk of moving to some other 
place is all rumor yet, and may not come off at 
all. I get so many rumors all the time ; as soon 
as the boys hear anything they come tearing into 
the Y to impart it, and I have learned by exper- 
ience to take it with a grain of salt. I just 
wanted you to know ahead, so that a change of 
base wouldn't surprise or worry you if it came. 

Thank you for sending the little editorial com- 
ments on Mrs. Deland's article, and the criticism. 
At the time the article was written, no one who 
heard it on this side of the water, felt that it 
was pro-German propaganda. I don't think any- 



122 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

one quite realized in the States the very dark 
hours through which France passed during the 
spring and early summer. Many Americans at 
that time felt that from now on the task of driv- 
ing the Germans back and of crushing their Kul- 
tur, was ours and ours alone. France, they felt, 
was well nigh spent and of course the whole 
world knows that America came into the war 
just in time. Some French people felt that it 
was too late and in her article Mrs. Deland quotes 
from what they said. You must remember that 
six months have wrought a miracle; half a year 
ago defeat was staring us in the face; conditions 
at home seemed hopelessly tangled and wound 
about with red tape. The vanguard of the A. E. 
F. was not properly supplied, and to us on this 
side our country seemed entirely blind to the fact 
and certainly not awake to the critical need for 
efficient and double-quick action. I remember 
Mrs. Deland saying that she wanted to throw 
something before the eye of the American public 
that would stir it up to a realization of the 
situation as it really was. Since then the miracle 
has happened. America has shaken herself free 
from the petty entanglements which held her 
down, and has turned the tide. Mrs. Deland's 
bomb came after it was needed and now in the 
light of the recent, glorious victories it sounds 
like pro-German propaganda. It is so easy to 
forget, when things are running smoothly, that 
there were ever hours of doubt and that drastic 



THE LORRAINE SECTOR 123 

measures were necessary. No one who wasn't 
here on the spot can know what those months of 
retreat meant to the French, and to those of us 
who were privileged to live amongst them during 
that time. They were prepared to fight to the 
last man, to lose their last drop of blood for 
France, and yet no one could be sure, not even 
the usual cock-sure Americans, that the German 
advance could be withheld. And then came 
Bertha. Paris, the heart of France, assaulted! 
The Germans never did anything in all the four 
years of cunning savagery that cut so deep into 
the French nation. 

As I say, no one who did not see with his own 
eyes can understand how close the front line 
seemed, — even to those of us who were tucked 
away in the mountains of Savoy. So don't judge 
Mrs. Deland's article too severely. Her idea was 
to awaken America and so save this wondrous 
and brave little country, not to mention the rest 
of the civilized world. The warning wasn't 
needed. It came when the air was ringing with 
the valor of our own beloved marines',' — and 
Paris had been saved. 

Then every one laughed at fears, pessimistic re- 
marks were scorned, labeled pro-German, and yet 
at one time just such medicine was needed. 

After all, can any one foretell the future of the 
vivid present in which we are living? We know 
that we are working toward the light — each of 
us weaves a world beyond the war to our liking — 



124 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

some of us see more hope in it than others. To 
Mrs. Deland it seems a more distant thing", but 
nevertheless she sees it. Not in our day, per- 
haps, but ultimately a new and better world. 

Baccarat, September 13th, 191 8. 

Our orders to move have come really before we 
expected them, and the town and all the sur- 
rounding landscape is a-bustle with preparations. 
We are to be ready and off just as soon as pos- 
sible and, from the tone of the orders, I imagine 
there is some place up the line where we are 
needed and that we are to hurry. All the sol- 
diers are tremendously excited and in a state to 
be on the way, as we all are. 

We, at the canteen, are busier than ever, of 
course ; the boys are stocking up for the trip. All 
the outlying huts are being closed and their sup- 
plies and secretaries arriving here at Headquar- 
ters. It's a wonderful sensation to be a part of 
the huge preparation. This moving along with 
a family of thousands of members is to me quite 
thrilling. I feel sort of like the night before 
Christmas and act exactly as much like a child 
as do any of the soldiers. In a certain way, of 
course, I hate to leave. These have been two 
wonderful months and have meant so much in 
the way of experience and opportunity. How- 
ever, one is ever keen for the unknown and for 
that which lies ahead and I should be heart- 
broken if my Division should go without me. 



THE LORRAINE SECTOR 125 

Moyen, September 17th, 1918. 

I certainly am the most fortunate of mortals! 
This is what has happened. Alice, as I wrote 
you, has been with the 148th Infantry ever since 
the 37th Division came into the sector, and as 
she has done such excellent work with them, the 
commanding officer told her that, if she could get 
another girl, he would be very glad to have her 
travel with the troops and get up a canteen for 
them at each stopping place. You can fancy 
Alice's delight, and mine when she asked me to 
be the " other girl " ! 

The remainder of the Y women are going to be 
moved en masse to a place near Bar-le-Duc to 
await developments and see where they can be 
most useful. Alice and I won't have to leave the 
DiATision at all and are going right along with 
it. Aren't we the lucky guys? 

Moyen, September 18th, 1918. 
Such crowded, vivid days as these have been 
and how I wish I might paint them on paper for 
you. We have a camouflaged Ford camion, chuck 
full of supplies and are given our orders each 
day and official looking road maps to show us 
where to go. We can move so much quicker than 
the regiment that we generally shoot ahead and 
have our canteen in readiness by the time the boys 
arrive. There is a nice Y man with one eye who 
drives the camion and wdien the three of us are 
packed in the narrow seat and the back is stacked 



126 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

high with cigarettes, chocolate, etc., not to men- 
tion our faithful bed-rolls, no car on earth but a 
Lizzie could make the grade. However, she does 
nobly and we have grown very fond of her al- 
ready. 

If we were busy before, we are certainly busy 
now. We've set up our canteen in a bewitching 
nook. The nuns in this town have let us have 
a little room in one end of their convent and have 
been very kind although, of course, intensely cur- 
ious at seeing us traveling about with the army. 
It's surprising how soon a place looks homelike. 
Two hours' work and the dark little room with 
its mud floor looked quite attractive. We made 
some rough writing tables and stuck candles 
about everywhere. As soon as the regiment ar- 
rived, of course, we were swamped. The boys sat 
all over the floor and on the window sill and we 
had a very merry time until well after dark when 
taps sounded and they all disappeared in the most 
amazing manner. I guess that old convent never 
heard so much noise before and I hope we didn't 
shock those gentle little nuns with our singing 
and laughter. 

We've been messing on the march with our 
Colonel and his staff and they have been endlessly 
kind and thoughtful. The boys have been ador- 
able too and helped us in a thousand ways. We 
are now awaiting orders to move on to the next 
place, there being several stops before our desti- 
nation is reached. We are working from 8 a. m. 



THE LORRAINE SECTOR 127 

to 10 p. M. and both of us never felt better. This 
certainly " is the life " and we're having the time 
of our lives. 

Fains, September 19th, 1918. 

Last night we didn't get much sleep. We lost 
our regiment and spent most of the wee small 
hours chasing clews all over the countryside. 
You can't imagine how awful it is getting sep- 
arated and not knowing just where the outiit is. 
I am always in a panic for fear that by some hook 
or crook they will leave us behind when they get 
to the " real front " and that we sha'n't be able 
to do our tiny bit to help. So last night I had 
just about given up hope of ever seeing those 
hundreds of familiar smiling faces again. How- 
ever, we did find them at last camped near Bar- 
le-Duc and we stopped there at dawn for a few 
hours' sleep in the very filthiest bed I have ever 
seen. 

We had quite a time with our camion and with 
our driver. Lizzie needed gas and the Y man 
needed his supper. He told us that he wasn't 
entirely in sympathy with an army that allowed 
ladies to run all over the earth setting up can- 
teens for it and that " woman's place was in the 
home," etc., and not in a gasless Ford on a dark 
French road in the middle of the night! We 
tried to smooth him down ; one couldn't blame 
him exactly. He is a bully good sport but this 
time he was adamant. At the time we were 



128 CAKTEENING OVEKSEAS 

crawling past a huge long train of camions and 
as no lights were allowed it did seem pitchy black. 
Suddenly we came to a cross-roads and a tall 
figure stepped up to our car. He was the officer 
in charge of the truck train and had been stand- 
ing at the cross-roads to point out the way. He 
was somewhat surprised w^hen a woman's voice 
answered his curt questions and at once wanted 
to do all he could to help us find our outfit. 
Alice gingerly put on her flashlight for a moment 
to look at the map and they both bent over the 
complicated road system. Suddenly there was 
an exclamation and Alice said " Why, Jim, — 
how extraordinary ! " They proved to be old 
friends and in a moment were reminiscing and 
thousands of miles away in " God's country." It 
seemed so strange her running into him there on 
that dark country road, and both of them on their 
w^ay up into the fighting ! We couldn't stop but 
a moment and he and his boys had to get many 
miles before dawn, so we jolted on. (I may say 
here that this fine boy never came back from the 
Front. ) 

About an hour later Lizzie stopped half way 
up a very steep hill and refused to budge. On in- 
vestigation, we found that the last few drops of 
gasoline had all run out of the engine on account 
of the steep slope of the hill. It looked very 
much as though we should have to curl up on the 
side of the road for the rest of the night but we 
finally thought of a plan. We took all the cases 



THE LORRAINE SECTOR 129 

and baggage out and lifted Lizzie bodily and 
turned her around so that she headed down in- 
stead of up hill. In this way the gas all ran back 
into the engine and, after we had loaded the stuff 
again, Lizzie cheerfully backed up the hill and 
ran merrily as far as the next toAvn where she 
had a good long drink ! 

It surely was an interesting night. I'm afraid 
Alice and I enjoyed it more than the Y man, who 
was half-starved by morning. 

Fains, September 20th, 1918. 
We are already settled at our second stopping 
place and shall be here some days, probably until 
further orders come to move along. We left our 
last stopping place the day before yesterday and 
have been on the road practically ever since. The 
run over was simply beautiful, a cloudless, crisp 
autumn day and the country most lovely. I 
think for both of us it was the happiest day 
we have spent in France. We ran into 
two or three other regiments not our own, 
although moving in the same direction. The 
roads were crowded with army trains, camions 
in endless lines, winding across the landscape as 
far as the eye could reach, and, of course, all 
filled with the familiar and beloved khaki figures. 
As we passed en^h motor truck, naturally we 
smiled and waved. Instantly the whole truck 
came to life, a great shout went up and the boys 
tore their caps off their heads and waved them in 



130 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

the air, shouting " Honest-to-God, American 
girls ! " I have never been so touched as at the 
transformation that came over their faces. As 
we met, they were sober and more or less uninter- 
ested in their surroundings. We passed, leaving 
each carload, full of a broadly grinning, ges- 
ticulating throng. The foregoing sounds horri- 
bly conceited, I know, but I can trust you to real- 
ize that the individual is not the thing that 
counts over here. It is just one's nationality and 
the touch of home. Personally, of course, we 
aren't anything. It's merely the country we 
stand for and the language we speak that does 
the good. 

Half an hour after we arrived in this muddy 
little town we had set up shop, this time in a 
French barracks and our dirt floor was invisible 
under a multitude of muddy feet. The boys find 
the " Y " so quickly and ten minutes after our 
boxes had been carried in, the place was jammed 
to the doors. 

We have found a billot in a rather primitive 
though alluring place. Our little box-like room 
is built right into one corner of the stable, and we 
walk out of our door into the hayloft ! The space 
next to us is occupied by a large family of rab- 
bits. They are doubtless later to be turned into 
a fine stew, for which the French are so famous. 
However, the bunnies seem oblivious of their fate 
and eat and wiggle their noses happily from 
morning to night. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE ARGONNE 

Revigny, September 21st, 1918. 

Yesterday, very unexpectedly came orders to 
move from Fains. This time we knew it would 
mean the Front. We studied out with great care 
the roads that would lead to our destination. 
The adjutant gave us our written orders as usual 
and we started off ahead of the regiment with a 
certain feeling of thrill. We took the wonderful 
main road that leads from Bar-le-Duc to Verdun 
and which is kept as smooth as the top of a bil- 
liard table. It's hard to see how they manage to 
keep it in condition as the traffic is necessarily 
terrific. 

Such a golden autumn day I have never seen 
and the red-and-yellow of the foliage along the 
way was marvelous beyond words. On and on 
we went with our map spread out on our knees, 
through scores of tiny red-roofed villages. Lizzie 
was running like velvet and the miles slipped 
away as by magic under those nimble wheels. 
The great highway was a most interesting sight. 
Many divisions, both American and French, were 
moving, all headed the same way. Hundreds of 
camions, tractors, tanks, soup kitchens, in fact, 

131 



132 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

all the elaborate parapheraalia that belongs to a 
fighting division. Scores of massive guns, roll- 
ing along, gracefully draped in their gowns of 
camouflage and pulled by lumbering, snorting 
trucks. 

The whole A. E. F. seemed to be on the road or 
camped along the side. Here and there we 
passed a colored regiment, the first I had seen 
of our broadly smiling colored boys and how 
strange and out of place they looked in this white 
ribbon of a French road. Towards sunset time 
the congestion on the road grew less and we be- 
gan to notice that the villages looked a bit the 
worse for shells that had fallen here and there. 
The place we w^re headed for was just about an 
inch away ( on the map ! ) and in a quarter of an 
hour we were in the center of the village (Ville 
en Coucance) and an M. P. at the corner was 
pointing out the way to Corps Headquarters, 
where he said some " Second Louis " would give 
us information concerning the location decided 
on for our regiment to spend the night. Alice 
and I left the Ford at the bottom of a hill and 
climbed up to a cluster of low-lying buildings 
which represented the 5th Corps Headquarters. 
As there seemed to be no one about, we walked 
into the first of the little bungalows. There was 
no " Second Louis " to be seen but, as we entered, 
a tall gray-haired man rose from behind a table 
at which he had been writing and came forward. 
As we saw the two stars on his shoulder we came 



THE ARGONNE 133 

to attention. He asked us how we happened to 
be there and what he could do for us. We ex- 
plained our connection with the division and 
presented our orders. He calmly turned them 
over, wrote something on the back and handed 
them to Alice. This is what she read : 

To all sentinels and M. P.'s along the road. 

These two ladies are to be returned at once to their 
Y. M. C. A. Heaquarters near Bar-le-Duc. By order 

Major General Cameron. 

When we had read it through, he said : " I 
cannot take the responsibility of allowing you to 
remain in the town. This afternoon I ordered 
all the civilians out and, as we are expecting a 
bombardment at any time, I must ask you to 
leave at once. I have two daughters at home 
just your ages. I admire the work you are doing 
but this is no place for women.'' With that he 
bowed us out. In the face of such orders and 
from a General, there was nothing to be said. 
We made our way silently to where Lizzie and 
the Y man were waiting and turned back along 
the road we had so recently traveled. Two such 
disappointed ladies you never saw. The Y man 
looked much relieved. He said he thought from 
the first that we were idiots to go so near the 
Front Line. It was all right for a man, but for 
women ! — they were meant to be sheltered, etc. 
Such conversation didn't help, somehow ! 

However, one must take what comes, of course, 
and I haven't despaired entirely. We will surely 



134 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

find some way of getting back to the boys. The 
rest of our Y force are here at Revigny and for 
the moment we have all got to wait until we can 
be of some real use. Perhaps that won't be until 
the Division has been withdrawn again and 
brought back here to rest. In the meantime, we 
spend our days in a little shed by the railroad 
track making doughnuts and hot chocolate for 
the boys that pour through here on the troop 
trains. We haven't any utensils so we use a 
wine bottle for a rolling pin and the mouth to 
make the hole in the center of each doughnut! 
It's surprising how many sided and useful a wine 
bottle is! 

Revigny, September 25th, 1918. 
The great drive has started and our division 
has jumped off with the rest. So much we know 
but absolutely nothing else. The guns are boom- 
ing night and day. I wake up at night and hold 
my breath when I think of all those fine lads in 
that veritable Hell. Alice and I are champing 
the bit these days, I can tell you. It seems per- 
fectly criminal to be held away back here when 
our own regiment may be coming out of the lines 
any hour and in need of a hundred things. Two 
others who belong to the 146th Infantry are 
equally impatient and we are looked upon, I fear, 
as the four rebels. The other women are much 
more sensible and don't thrash around the way 
we do. The Y men have gone up the line and 



THE ARGONNE 135 

left us instructions to " sit on the nest " and stop 
fussing until they send for us. 

Pagny-sur-Meuse, October 4th, 1918. 
I have been out of reach of any post office for 
the past week and am only just now back in civ- 
ilization again. Alice, the two girls (of whom I 
have already written ) , Harriet Forman and Ruth 
Andrews, and myself finally revolted, took our 
bedding rolls and musette bags and started off 
on " our own." We knew approximately where 
our Divisional Headquarters were situated and 
decided that some women ought to be there when 
the boys came out, orders or no orders. Some- 
how we couldn't any of us settle down in Revigny 
and feel right about it, so we got on a train and 
spent the first night in Bar-le-Duc slipping 
through the M. P.'s at the station without show- 
ing our movement orders, which was lucky as 
we had none to show ! We turned our steps to- 
wards a somber house in a back alley where once 
before we had found a bed. (Billets are at a 
premium in all the towns anywhere near the lines 
and people generally walk the streets of Bar-le- 
Duc all night.) Fortunately we bribed the old 
woman who keeps the house to give us two beds 
and we had a fine sleep until 4 A. M. when w^e 
arose to catch the 4:30 that runs daily on the 
narrow-gauge railway up the line. We had spent 
an interesting half hour the night before poring 
pver our maps and making out the quickest route. 



136 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

The streets were quite deserted as we sallied 
forth and the rain was coming down in sheets. 
Luckily we had our trench coats so didn't get 
very wet. Near the station a crowd of night 
birds had gathered about a stand where an old, 
old woman was selling coffee by the light of a tiny 
gas lamp that flickered and sputtered in the wind 
and rain. She called it coffee but it tasted like 
acorns and of course there was no cream or sugar. 
However, it was steaming hot and we were more 
than thankful for the warmth. 

The little toy train was already filled with 
soldiers when we arrived and was snorting and 
whistling to be off. It was so dark that except 
for their conversation we couldn't have told what 
nationality the soldiers all about us were. As 
soon as they realized we were women, and Amer- 
icans at that, there were exclamations of sur- 
prise and we were at once given seats. 

For almost two hours we jolted along in dark- 
ness, no lights being allowed, and slowly the dawn 
began to break and we could distinguish the blue 
figures sitting and lying asleep all over the seats 
and up and down the aisles. The rain was beat- 
ing against the windows and we looked out on a 
dismal gray landscape with here and there a 
small village partially destroyed, its one street 
deserted and a glistening river of mud. 

We cheered ourselves with a. loaf of bread and 
a can of bully beef which we had brought with us 
and all the French soldiers breakfasted too on 



THE ARGONNE 137 

bread, cheese and Pinard (red wine). I was so 
hungry and I don't think any breakfast ever 
tasted so good. 

About eight-thirty we reached Auzeville, the 
end of the railroad line. We dragged our bed- 
rolls off, cached them in the tiny station and then 
waded through muddy meadows to the edge of 
the town. A regiment was billeted there on its 
way up the line and the place was crowded with 
American officers and soldiers. We hunted for 
some time before we could get a billet but finally 
found two beds in the house of the village gro- 
eeresses. There were four of them, all old maids, 
and they greeted us with great enthusiasm and 
interest when they found we were Americans. 

The town had been fearfully shelled up to the 
day before when the hraves Americains had 
driven the enemy back through the Argonne For- 
est and for the first time in months the civilians 
had spent a quiet night, out of the cellar. Such 
a story as these maiden ladies had to tell ! Dur- 
ing the four years they had been obliged to evac- 
uate many times. The French had lost and re- 
taken the town repeatedly and each time the Ger- 
mans took or demolished whatever they could lay 
their hands on. Nothing was left; life would 
have to be begun anew but at least they and theirs 
were safe at last. The Americans had come in 
the nick of time. 

I wish all those at home who have made the 
supreme sacrifice that France and, the world 



138 OANTEEKIKG OVERSEAS 

might be saved, those whose boys gave their lives 
in the great Argonne drive, could have seen the 
relief and gratitude in those old French faces. It 
might make the burden and loss a bit easier to 
bear, for no crusader or knight of olden days 
ever died for so great and supreme a cause. 

That night we spent in Auzeville and messed 
with some delightful Southern troops who iilled 
us full of delicious beaten biscuit and pancakes. 
As we had scarcely had anything to eat since the 
day before we were ravenous and the boys stood 
around in an amused group and watched us swal- 
low everything whole. They wanted us to stay 
and attach ourselves to their regiment but by 
that time we were in a fever of impatience to 
press on. So, very early the next n^orning, we 
started. It was a dark threatening day with a 
high wind and the road deep in mud. However, 
we were so thankful to have gotten that far safely 
that nothing else mattered. The towns we came 
to were full of soldiers but no civilians. The 
buildings were badly shot up from recent shell- 
ing and such utter desolation I have never seen. 
The road over which we were walking was in 
pretty fair shape, all except the mud, which, how- 
ever, could not keep us from enjoying the tramp. 
One could hear the sound of the guns which grew 
more and more distinct of course as we gdt 
nearer the lines. We spent most of that day 
walking and about sundown saw the ruins of 
Recicourt in the distance and knew that our trip 



THE ARGONNE 139 

was almost over, for Divisional Headquarters 
were there and also our Y men who were not ex- 
pecting us! About four miles this side we ran 
into an ambulance section, the members of which 
had been to Aix on leave months before. They 
were so surprised when they saw us they stared 
for a full moment before they took it in. After 
that, they recognized us and we had a wonderful 
reunion there on the side of the road. The last 
time they had seen us we were flitting about the 
Casino terraces in thin summer dresses. Some 
change to the weather-beaten, muddy quartet that 
confronted them on the road to the Argonne For- 
est! Anyway we were certainly glad to see one 
another, especially out there where friends seem 
to mean more than anywhere else on earth. 

It was quite late when we finally marched into 
Recicourt and I almost wept with joy at the 
sight of some of our divisional staff cars drawn 
up along the road under a camouflaged shelter. 
A little farther on we ran into a group of boys 
we knew and from then on it was a triumphal 
entry. As long as I live I never expect to be so 
happy again. It seemed a hundred years since 
we had seen any of the familiar faces and it was 
just like getting home to be with them all again. 
These were Headquarters boys and they told us 
that our regiment was expected to some back en 
repos in a very few days. After that we knew the 
Y men must let us stay and help and they did. 

The line had advanced so far during the first 



140 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

days of the drive that Recicourt was practically 
out of danger and anyway there was so much to 
do that four pairs of hands and feet were wel- 
come. So we picked out a nice little ruin and put 
up our four cots in what was left of the second 
story. As luck would have it, most of the roof 
was still whole and only leaked in the parts of 
the room that we didn't frequent ! The window 
had been blown out so we hung a blanket across. 
A Fatima cigarette packing-case made a fine 
washstand and we felt as though we were com- 
fortably fixed for the winter. The town was 
certainly smashed up and mutilated beyond all 
description. We ran the canteen below our sleep- 
ing quarters as it was literally the only remnant 
of a house in the whole town with any roof at 
all. We were lucky to have it as the weather 
was very cold and the autumn rains had started, 
so we had to have a place where we could keep 
our supplies dry. I have never enjoyed the work 
more. We were at it from dawn till dark, except 
when we ran down a back alley to mess with a 
certain crowd of old friends. They had a drag 
with the Quartermaster Department and con- 
cocted the most wonderful food in a ruined cellar. 
How we were spoiled! Special pieces of horse 
were cooked for us and in the morning all the 
hot cakes we could eat. I can tell you we were 
thankful for something hot after the long hours 
standing in the mud and doling out " one cigar, 
two squares of chewing tobacco and one pack of 



THE ARGONNE 141 

cigarettes apiece " to hundreds upon hundreds of 
men. They hadn't had a thing in two weeks and 
the line in front of the Y looked a mile long ! 

So we spent five wonderful days and, on the 
sixth, the whole division came out of the lines. 
About dusk they marched into Recicourt and we 
stood at the entrance to the town waiting, our 
hearts in our mouths. Many rumors had pre- 
ceded them, tales of horror unmentionable, and 
we wondered how many of those we had come to 
know and love would file past and how many lay 
" out there " in that ghastly stretch of shell torn 
land. 

Suddenly there was a stir. Around a bend in 
the road came the first column of troops. Hun- 
dreds, thousands of men passed us. Some we 
recognized and some we never would know again 
as the young lads who had marched so gayly into 
their first fight. Their faces were lined and their 
eyes glazed with fatigue and the horrors they had 
seen. Some wore bandages about their heads or 
hands, and others limped painfully as they tried 
to keep in step. Finally some one murmured 
" Here comes the 148th." It was so dark one 
could scarcely see but the regiment came to a 
stop close to where we were standing and we had 
a few hurried words with some of the men and 
officers we knew best. Only a few words, but 
enough to hear of scores who had " gone West " 
in the great drive and many more who at that 
jiioment were being rushed over the cruelly bumpy 



142 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

roads to dressing stations. Our hearts were 
pretty heavy as we crept into our blankets that 
night. 

The next day, while Alice and Andy ran the 
canteen in the village, Harriet and I filled a 
truck with chocolate containers, huge quantities 
of sugar, milk, cocoa and biscuit, and started on 
our way out to a big plain at one side of the Ar- 
gonne Forest and where our entire division had 
been assembled to rest their weary bones before 
the next move. The plain was only a distance 
of two or three kilometers, but, in order to reach 
it, we had to wind in and out among the shell 
holes and the torn-up roads of the forest, making 
a detour of about twenty kilometers. If we 
hadn't been in such a hurry to get our stuff 
through to the boys we would have enjoyed that 
bumpy ride better. As it was, the woods were 
intensely interesting. The huge naval guns were 
being pulled out to continue their usefulness 
farther up the line and everywhere the under- 
brush and smaller trees had been trampled and 
torn up. The roads were completely covered and 
camouflaged in many places. The engineers had 
been working night and day that the ammunition 
might be kept moving forward to feed the colossal 
demand of those who at that moment had Jerry 
on the run. 

Such roads ! Every few yards a shell hole and 
along each side, heaps of trucks, dead horses ; in 
fact, anything pertaining tO tll^ machinery of 



THE ARGONNE 143 

war and which had broken or refused to work. 
There had been no time to stop. The road must 
be kept free of blockades and so the useless article 
was tipped over into the ditch (there to lie until 
the Salvage Department came along, months af- 
terwards). A horse only had to go lame, — in- 
stantly he was shot and shoved aside. It was 
easy to see why the Artillery hadn't been able to 
move as quickly as the Infantry and why our 
particular regiment had been forced to " jump 
off " completely unsupported, only becoming con- 
scious of their own barrage when they ran into 
it themselves as they came out ! 

When the Y. M. C. A. is criticized for not put- 
ting across a good job at the Front, it is by those 
who do not realize that roads which were not 
passable for ammunition were likewise impass- 
able for Y supplies. I know of one of our men 
who, driving a Ford camion of cigarettes, was 
twenty-two hours going a distance of three kilo- 
meters. The shell holes on that road were deep 
enough to have served as the foundation of a 
house, and they had to be filled before the truck 
train could proceed. 

Shortly after noon we arrived at our destina- 
tion and within a few minutes we had borrowed 
a field kitchen, and gallons of chocolate were 
cooking in the great boilers. Before it was half 
ready the news had spread and a line of boys 
began to form. It ten minutes we couldn't see 
the end. It wound in and out, zig-zagging back 



144 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

and forth across that great plain. Some one said 
it was half a mile long; as we heard that, we 
prayed that the chocolate and biscuit would last 
till the very end man had been warmed and filled. 

I had never seen the Division together before 
and it was a thrilling sight to see them all as- 
sembled on that vast stretch. Thousands upon 
thousands of brown figures in line and some lying 
prostrate on the grass fast asleep. 

Those who had lost their mess cups had col- 
lected old tin cans, anything, in fact, that would 
hold a few drops of chocolate and each one as he 
came up for his biscuits and dipper full of cocoa 
had some little remark to make. So many famil- 
iar faces and how keen they were to tell their 
own particular experience and such cheer and 
grit in the telling! Some blurted out at once 
" Well, Miss Y, you see Jim isn't with me now ; 
yes, he got his," and then followed a minute de- 
scription of just how it had happened. Or again, 
only a compressing of the lips and that terrible 
pain in the eyes which one comes to know so well. 
It was the most stirring and beautiful day I have 
ever spent. Artificiality was for once forgotten, 
every one was dealing simply and unconsciously 
with the elemental things of life and no one was 
ashamed of wearing his heart on his sleeve. 

A few hours before, those same boys had been 
living through the worst Hell ever conceived. 
The fumes of mustard gas still hung about their 
clothes and the memory of what had been, and 



THE ARGONNE 145 

Avhat they had escaped, made them grip my hand 
hard, thinking perhaps of that other girl or 
woman across the sea who was bridging the dis- 
tance with her agonized thoughts and prayers. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE ST. MIHIEL FRONT 

Nonsard Woods, October 11th, 1918. 

We returned from the Argonne to Pagny-siir- 
Meuse, where our Division was being reassembled 
for a new move but did not enjoy our sojourn 
there as both Harriet and I were suffering from 
the effects of the gas fumes which had caught us 
in the Argonne. On the way to Pagny, we stayed 
a day in Toul. That night as I was leaving the 
restaurant where we had supper, I ran into a 
lieutenant belonging to Chester Plimpton's out- 
fit. Not having heard from Chester for some 
time I started to ask the Lieutenant how Chester 
was. Before I could get the words out of my 
mouth, the officer said : " Of course you have 
heard that Lieutenant Plimpton was killed." I 
simply looked at him without saying anything, 
and then walked out. The shock was so sudden 
and so terrible that I was bereft of words. I 
found myself in the street with the others. 

Yesterday we started in pursuit of the Divi- 
sion, which, when last heard of, was marching 
toward the St. Mihiel front. The narrow-gauge 
railway took us as far as Bern^court and there 
we piled out. Our bedrolls were dragged to the 

146 



THE ST. MIHIEL FRONT 147 

side of the road along which we hoped soon to be 
traveling and, after having gleaned some informa- 
tion from soldiers billeted in the forlorn ruins of 
the town, we sat upon our baggage and waited 
for a kind-hearted truck to come along! Our 
orders had been to worm ourselves up to the 
Front by degrees, no women being allowed to fol- 
low the troops, as they were going straight into 
the lines. The process of " getting there," sug- 
gested by our Y chief, would have taken weeks, 
and so we had thought it best to take the direct 
route and surprise him. 

We hadn't long to wait, for, in a few moments, 
an engineer truck, carrying rock and bound our 
way, stopped and took us and our belongings 
aboard. Three of us perched a-top the rock and 
had a fine view of the surrounding country. The 
other sat with the driver, who pointed out the 
sights along the way, mostly consisting of mar- 
velous dugouts of German make, and shell holes, 
also of German make! After many miles we 
came to the crossroad and Flirey, or the few 
stones and ruins that marked where it had been. 
Our engineer friend had to drop us here, as he 
was going another way, so we piled off the rock 
and prepared to wait for another " hook." 

A charming Red Cross lady gave us chocolate 
in a marvelously constructed shack built from 
debris. She told us that she was nearer the 
Front than any other woman and had stuck to 
her post during the great drive. The place was 



148 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

jammed with soldiers and two of these stationed 
near the crossroads to stop the first ambulance 
going up towards our part of the line. Alice 
went out to see the soldiers and in a few mo- 
ments came in, all excitement. As it passed 
along the road a car had dropped a map and one 
of the soldiers had picked it up. Alice and he 
investigated, only to find that it was a marked 
t)ivisional Map of great importance, showing the 
exact location of each regiment and company. 
Under the name " St. Benoit " was written 
" 148th Regiment " ! It was indeed a find, and 
before the soldier had pocketed the map Alice had 
drawn a small but exact copy. 

Soon after this there were shouts and an am- 
bulance going in our direction was stopped and 
we were packed in with many farewell injunc- 
tions and good wishes from the Red Cross lady 
and her boys. 

At last we were on the last lap of the journey 
and were rushing across the muddy roads to 
Bullionville, the Divisional Headquarters. It 
was quite a lengthy ride and a damp and cold 
one. Each ruined town looked more dismal and 
forlorn than the last and we hoped we were going 
to receive a cheery welcome to make up for the 
gloomy, rain-drenched surroundings. 

However, the chief was rather furious when he 
saw us and we were told to get out and back as 
fast as we knew how! It seemed that we were 
only three or four kilometers behind Mr. Boche 



THE ST. MIHIEL FRONT 149 

and that he had been shelling the town every few 
hours. From the masses of soldiers to be served 
we felt that we might be of help — but the chief 
was in no mood for arguing so we meekly begged 
an hour's grace in which to lunch with Company 
I (whose kitchen was right 'round the corner in 
a roofless barn). This was granted us on condi- 
tion that, our meal over, we would start back at 
once. We agreed sadly. * 

It was maddening. Before the hour was half 
over we had talked with a crowd of particular 
friends and heard how much they needed a Y 
with four ladies! It was evident that the Y 
force wasn't nearly large enough to cope with 
the needs of the situation and yet here we were, 
four strong people being hustled off to guard our 
lives and save our precious skins! 

After a delicious luncheon of bully beef and 
gold fish (salmon) we prepared to return over 
the road so recently traversed. As we entered 
the Headquarters to bid farewell to the chief, he 
met us at the door with these words : " Girls, 
you've got to stay after all. The Divisional 
Quartermaster and his supplies are tied up on 
the road miles away. The Y has been asked to 
turn over all its stuff so that the men will have 
something to eat until the Army supplies arrive. 
We need all the help we can get and more. So 
hustle round and find yourselves billets if you 
can." 

Well, you can fancy we were all just one large 



150 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

smile after that — the kind that doesn't come off. 

After having installed ourselves on the ground 
floor of a fairly whole house, we began a minute 
study of our maps and the precious diagi'am that 
Alice had copied on the road. The chief had told 
us that w^e could not join our own regiment owing 
to the fact that it was too close to the lines and 
no information had been received concerning it 
since it marched up. He said he would send a 
Y man to look after its needs as soon as the 
road leading to St. Benoit was in any way safe 
to traverse. No one had risked passing along it 
in the daytime as it could be seen by the Germans 
and was in direct line of their guns. 

We knew of course that the boys would be 
pretty low on cigarettes, etc., if they had been up 
there three days without supplies, also we wanted' 
to get to our own regiment if possible and col- 
lect as much information as we could concerning 
the needs and location of other outfits. 

About two o'clock we started off in the direc- 
tion of Thiacourt, branching off at Benny, and so 
on along the road to St. Benoit and the 148th. 
It was as usual a dark, threatening day, a very 
good war setting, and as we met no one for a long 
way, we weren't stopped or questioned, and we 
just walked as fast as we could, hoping to reach 
our destination and shelter before the evening 
shelling started. 

After leaving St. Benoit we noticed a camou- 
flaged net stretched over the deep ditch on either 



THE ST. MIHIEL FRONT 151 

side of the road. Cleverly concealed beneath 
were the big guns and two or three soldiers in 
charge of each one. I'll never forget the look of 
amazement that came over their faces when they 
glanced up and saw four feminine heads poked 
over the bank. We gave them some newspapers 
we had brought from Toul and continued drop- 
ping them all along the road until our supply was 
gone. It was loads of fun. We'd drop a 
Herald on their heads and generally the men 
came scrambling up for a bit of a chat, wanting 
to know how we'd ever gotten there and where 
" in 'ell " we were bound for ! They sent us on 
our way with a " Best of luck to you ! " 

After several hours we arrived at St. Benoit 
and found our Regimental Headquarters in the 
basement of the ruined Hotel de Ville. The Ad- 
jutant greeted us most enthusiastically, telling 
us that if we had arrived a couple of hours later 
we shouldn't have found them as they were mov- 
ing into the woods that night. We at once got 
busy on plans and he assured us that in another 
day the regiment would be settled and ready for 
the Y. He also told us much about where help 
was most needed in the rest of the Division and, 
by the time we started on our homeward route, 
we had all the information and more, that we 
had come for. 

A truck picked us up on the way back so that 
we got in before any one had begun worrying 
about us. We found the chief and all the Y men 



152 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

gathered around the maps and making their 
plans. Of course our information was a help as 
none of them had been over the ground before 
and, under the circumstances, we weren't scolded 
for having gone. One old bird raised his voice 
to say that he thought it outrageous for women 
to be at the Front and to take it upon themselves 
to travel on roads in the daytime that sensible 
people didn't risk even at night. However, he 
was hushed up and we were told we could leave 
for our regiment and their woods early the next 
morning, which was all we wanted. 

That night, while in the middle of a delicious 
meal of canned duck and green peas which we 
had brought with us, we experienced our first 
barrage. The shells whistled over our heads and 
burst somewhere beyond us. Luckily our billet 
was built under the lee of the hill, so we were 
moderately safe. Of course there was so much 
noise that it was hard to sleep, but then none of 
us wanted to as it was our first real night at the 
Front. 

The shells kept whistling and bursting for 
about three hours and we amused ourselves by 
trying to guess what part of the town was being 
smashed. 

Nonsard Woods, October 12th, 1918. 
Alice and I are back with our regiment at last 
and Andy and Harriet are off somewhere in the 
woods near here with their company. It's a 



THE ST. MIHIEL FRONT 153 

great satisfaction and we are pretty happy to 
have put our little plan through. It is now Octo- 
ber 12th, so we have been on the road almost a 
week since we left the Argonne. It's been a most 
interesting and amusing trip and everywhere we 
have been fortunate in getting billets in over- 
crowded towns and villages, where high-rank of- 
ficers had besought in vain. You can't imagine 
how American women are spoiled over here. For 
the last five nights before starting up from Toul 
we spent the dark hours in a different town. For 
some unknown reason our train always left before 
light and never arrived till well after dark. We 
traveled in circles, which seems to be the ap- 
proved method of moving troops, and so have 
been almost a week covering a really small dis- 
tance. 

The regiment is encamped in lovely woods and 
different companies take turns holding the lines 
which are only a few kilometers away. Those 
companies that are relieved come back here to 
rest and that's where our work comes in. The 
woods are marvelously camouflaged and we trust 
that Jerry cannot see the winding paths and 
clearings when he sails about overhead. It has 
only been a short time since the Germans were 
here themselves, so of course we are at a bit of a 
disadvantage as they know these woods pretty 
well. I wish you could see the wonderful dug- 
outs and log cabins they made for themselves. 
Luckily they left in such a hurry that the only 



154 CANTEENING OVEESEAS 

harm they were able to do was to cut all the elec- 
tric wires — even the dugouts had been lighted 
with electricity! The houses themselves are 
works of art, beautifully made and perfectly 
equipped, including hot shower baths, wainscot- 
ted walls, rustic furniture, hanging flower 
baskets, everything in short that would make up 
a fancy Adirondack camp. Alice and I are bil- 
leted in the very nicest of them all. It is a cabin, 
stained brown on the inside and beautifully fin- 
ished. The outside walls and roof are covered 
with exquisite green moss. It must have taken 
weeks to have completed it and collect the moss 
which is appliqued on to the wood by means of 
wire netting. The thick growth of trees all about 
and the color of the house itself makes it invisible 
from above. Our little room is almost com- 
pletely furnished with chairs, tables, and even 
beds that the boys have salvaged from a neighbor- 
ing dugout. 

The Boches left in such a hurry that the in- 
coming Yanks found a meal cooking on their fires 
and lather still standing in the shaving mugs! 
Everything under the sun was found in the way 
of luxuries — and a lot of women's clothes, shoes, 
hats, etc. I don't see how they dared have 
women so close to the lines. They never ex- 
pected to have to move, I guess. Every indica- 
tion points to their expectation to stay and live 
in this alluring spot under the trees to the end of 
the war. All is arranged in such a permanent 



THE ST. MIHIEL FRONT 155 

fashion, German signs, beautifully printed in 
wonderful lettering and tacked on the trees. 

I wish you might look in upon us at this mo- 
ment — Alice doing a bit of laundry while I write 
at the table by the light of three fat, prosperous 
candles. Our room is arranged like the cabin 
on a ship, cots along the side, two tables with 
wash basins, mess kits, etc., all laid out. In one 
corner is a small stove ; it has a ravenous appetite 
for dead branches and is the joy of our life. Our 
clothes form a tapestry about the walls, hanging 
as they do from numerous nails. We have one 
window with a heavy cardboard curtain, which 
slides across at night, keeping the light inside 
where it belongs. We look out into a tangle of 
reds and browns, cut here and there by paths 
covered with small pine logs nailed together. 
It's all like some strange fairy tale and I feel as 
though I were dreaming. 

Besides our room, the cabin contains a wee 
kitchen, the mess room, two cooks, the Regimental 
Adjutant and his orderly. So we are well pro- 
tected. Every one is endlessly kind and nothing 
is ever too much trouble to do for us. We have 
been given an army cart, a couple of horses and 
a driver, which we fill daily with supplies (not 
the driver but the cart) and trundle around from 
company to company through the woods, dis- 
tributing tobacco, etc. It is a canteen on wheels 
this time and we are enchanted with the idea. 

We weren't allowed to have a stationary can- 



156 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

teen as the men congregate in a place like that 
and we are too near the lines. Fritzie would 
surely get wind of it, find out our location and 
send over a neat little shell or two. 

Alice and I feel just like gypsies, as we spend 
most of our waking hours in our high cart, jolting 
many miles a day. The back of the cart has steps 
that let down. We sit on the top step and sell 
from the stock inside the cart. There is gener- 
ally a string of boys following behind us so that 
when we stop we are at once surrounded by a 
grinning, cheerful circle of khaki. 

It is beautiful beyond words now in the woods 
and we feel as though living in a stained glass 
window. When mess time comes we stop and eat 
at whatever camp we happen to be. Altogether 
it's a happy-go-lucky sort of a life and to my 
mind the most glorious in the world. 

We have fixed up a writing and reading room 
in a cabin near our own. It looks so " comfy " 
with long tables and easy chairs about the pret- 
tiest brick fireplace you ever saw. It was once 
a princely Boche officer's bungalow, and he evi- 
dently took great pains with it for the ceiling is 
raftered and a monogram and imperial crown are 
painted over the mantelpiece. Along each side 
of the living room are three casement windows. 
The doors at the end open on to a rustic terrace 
under the trees. I wish I had pictures to send 
you of this extraordinary little village built way 
off in the deep woods miles from civilization. 



THE ST. MIHIEL FRONT 157 

Yesterday we came upon a regular beer garden 
— lovely little benches built into shady nooks 
and, in a central place a summer house for a 
band, surrounded by flower beds. The band 
stand is built in a circle and made of pine 
branches with the bark left on — a ring of music 
stands, an expectant group, just as they had been 
left. 

Nonsard Woods, October 15th, 1918. 
Such a glorious day as we've had, driving 
through the rainy woods, stopping and selling at 
each little camp and then on again. We got back 
after dark, soaking wet and frozen, but were soon 
warming before our own little fire and telling 
each other that no one else in the world ever had 
such luck as we, which all goes to show that one 
should never count one's chickens. At that mo- 
ment we were called in to mess and, when we got 
there, found our oflBcers giving hurried orders 
and all swallowing their suppers whole. In 
other words, our entire Division is once more on 
the move. Orders came this afternoon and our 
happy little home is " busted up " — to every one's 
utter disgust. We've done nothing but move 
from one Front to the other for the past five 
weeks. Every one expected we'd stay here for at 
least a month and of course after the recent hard- 
ships no one was averse to having a roof and a 
nice stove to enjoy for awhile. We haven't an 
idea where we're going but most every one seems 



158 CANTEENING OVEESEAS 

to think that it's back en repos. At any rate it 
means a good week at jaunting about before we 
arrive and we don't especially enjoy the prospect 
of leaving the Front for some S. O. S. ( Service 
of Supplies). The poor boys w^ere so happy at 
the prospect of a few weeks in the same place 
and are crazy about these woods, even if they are 
a hot spot when the Boches feel " peppy." But 
this army doesn't approve of leaving anything or 
any one in one place more than a second. So to- 
morrow we'll be packed up and once more on the 
road. C'est la GueiTe! And now I must crawl 
into my blanket and make the most of our last 
night here. 

Paris, October 19th, 1918. 

One certainly never knows what is next on the 
program. Here we are back in Paris and our 
Division has gone up to the Flanders Front, the 
one place where we cannot follow, as the English 
do not allow any women on their Front. Of 
course we are more cut up than I can say but 
we cannot help realizing that we have been for- 
tunate beyond our wildest dream in staying with 
one Division on three different fronts. 

It was a wonderful trip in from the lines this 
last time. The first lap was made by camion 
through a sea of mud to the nearest railway, 
w^hich was at Bernecourt, the way we had come. 
From there we were to take the next train, which 
runs on a narrow^ gauge line into Toul. When 



THE ST. MIHIEL FRONT 159 

we arrived at the station, or what remained of it 
(it was nothing but a ruin with no roof), we 
found we had four hours to wait. It was bitter 
cold, already getting dark and the usual fine driz- 
zle had set in. We decided to make ourselves as 
comfortable as possible, so we hunted up some 
wood and built a roaring fire on the debris in the 
middle of the station. In a few moments we had 
our little cooking things out and some of Dad's 
sterno heat was warming up the food we always 
carry with us. Tea, bread, canned meat and 
sweet biscuit made a very ample repast. And, 
while the wind howled and the rain beat down, 
we sat cozily under our ruined shelter, and the 
fire snapped and crackled cheerily. 

The French soldiers on guard along the tracks 
came in and warmed themselves and we refilled 
their pockets with cigarettes and chocolate. In 
return for this small attention they escorted our 
heavy cots and bedding rolls on board the toy 
train when it arrived and were altogether most 
kind and helpful. 

We got into Toul well after midnight and be- 
gan walking about, trying to find billets which 
were, as always, scarce as hen's teeth. Luckily 
for us we ran into the billeting officer, who guided 
us to a Red Cross hospital, where an angelic nurse 
put us into four cots with real sheets on them. 
We slept like logs until five when we made the 
early train for Paris. 

Now we're at the Continental, every other place 



160 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

being full, and are reveling in hot baths and soft 
beds. 

And yet how we wish we were on the road again 
following that muddy, disheveled regiment of 
ours into Belgium ! 

Froidos, (A. P. 0. 927), 
October 28th, 1918. 

Here we are, very nicely settled at our new 
post, and it is a big satisfaction to be working 
again. We have really fallen on our feet this 
time and are so comfortably fixed that we can't 
believe we're not dreaming. Our Y. M. C. A. is 
an old stable, with a mud floor for the moment, 
but veiy soon we expect to get an American bar- 
racks with all modern conveniences, including a 
roof and a plank floor. The officers have been 
simply splendid. The place needed a Y. M. C. A. 
badly, and they were so glad to see us that they 
have simply turned themselves inside out to make 
us comfortable. We have a room the like of 
wliich we haven't seen in weeks. It contains a 
real bed, a large mirror, chairs, and various hooks 
on which to hang our clothes. The lady who 
owns this place brings us hot water evei'y morn- 
ing. I don't suppose you can realize what that 
means — hot water. Even in Paris it is an ab- 
solutely unknown quantity except on Saturdays. 
We haven't been so clean since we came to 
France ! 

Our domicile has already taken on a home-like 



THE ST. MllIIIOL FKONT 161 

uspoct. My liillo aniiy cot is sot up in o\u\ coi'- 
ner. Our cookiiifj: kit is all laid out, etc. It'rt 
great to luivo a place we can call our own fo^ 
more tlmn half a minute! This is what they 
call a Ueplncoinent Cjiinp. All casualH report 
here and jj;et reasHijjjned to their DivisionH — after 
they leave the hospitals. Also about a thousand 
men i)er day come out of the lines and report 
here for a day or two of rest before they >^o back 
in aj^ain. Most of Ihem are worn out, sufTerinj; 
from sliell-sliock, gas, (;tc. Our task is to enter- 
t^iin and feed them up before they jj^o back. 
They're a y)athetically, appreciative bunch, very 
quiet and forlorn, with hollow cheeks and larf^o 
eyes. It all makes one's heart ache for them. 

Alice and T have a Y man workinjj: with us; it's 
a bij^ger task than two women can handle alone. 
ITe is a Methodist minister and doesn't approve 
of sellinpj playinpf cards in the canteen ! Aside 
from the fact of his being a bit straight-laced, he 
is most kind and nice and his heart is in the 
right i)lac(\ Ro I am sure we are going to have a 
mighty interesting time. We get boys from 
every division in the army and they include some 
of my beloved nmrines. Alice, Mr. C. and T mess 
with th(» oflicers, who are a jolly lot, and w(^ have 
very good food, eonsidering the fa<'t that we are 
so far away from supplies of any sort. 

Froidos, November 2nd, 1018. 
The last few days liave been crowded and we 



162 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

have been in the canteen from morning to night. 
Our line forms an hour before we open in the 
morning, and, by the time we unlock the doors at 
nine, the string of boys stretches way down the 
street. We hate to have them stand in line and 
wait their turn. They get so much of that in the 
army. Everything seems to be a waiting line. 
They have to line up for inspection, for mess, to 
be paid, etc. But it seems to be the one and only 
way to handle such a big bunch, and they're won- 
derfully good-natured about it and cheerfully 
wait hours for the sake of a single package of 
cigarettes. For the past three days they have 
filed past our counter in a never-ending stream 
from nine in the morning till nine at night. 

Our hut is a stable-effect, quite picturesque but 
that damp and draughty. We are negotiating 
for the French Y building, as it is scarcely used 
and is very grand, with a wooden floor and roof ! 
We may get it in time. The red tape involved 
in such a transaction is even worse than in the 
States, so we are hoping to have our new home by 
Christmas perhaps. 

The weather has come off very cold and every- 
one is already bundled up to the ears. I have 
had two ancient sweaters dyed, one green and 
one purple. They look good as new and are a 
joy to my economical soul. I tell you, you never 
appreciate the value of money until you earn it 
yourself. 

I wish you could see us at mess. These offi- 



THE ST. MIHIEL FRONT 163 

cers with whom we eat are mostly older men and 
are really very bright and clever. They tease 
and " kid " each other continually so that our 
meals are quite jolly and hilarious. Every one is 
most kind. Both boys and officers do everything 
in the world for us. 

One Captain is particularly amusing, very keen 
and alive but tremendously impressed with him- 
self. He does a vast amount of talking, quoting 
all his celebrated friends, invariably calling them 
by their first names. He told me last night that 
he always wore spats at home! So you know 
the type. With all his funny little mannerisms 
he's awfully kind-hearted and just as funny and 
bright as he can be — but at other people's ex- 
pense, I'm afraid. Woe unto the person, though, 
who takes him off. 

Froidos, A. P. O. 927, A. E. F., 

November 5th, 1918. 

Yesterday it was my good fortune to take the 
truck and go over to headquarters for supplies. 
Believe me, it was good to get out of our dark 
little canteen and spend three glorious hours in 
the sunshine. My idea of a good time is rushing 
through the clear cold air on the front seat of an 
army truck, the seat crowded with soldiers, and 
more soldiers " hooking " a ride on the back. 

Last evening the scenery was impressive. The 
road, a straight ribbon of white, stretched for 
miles before one. You seemed to be rushing 



164 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

right into a sea of flaming colors, the sunset, with 
here and there a gaunt poplar by the side of the 
road, tall and jet black against the sky. As we 
neared our little village the light had faded to the 
most exquisite pale shades and a few stars began 
to come out here and there in the heavens. Those 
moments between dusk and night are always to 
me the most precious of the whole day. Th#re 
is something wonderfully mysterious about them. 
The trivial things of life seem very distant and 
somehow God and the Infinite very close. At 
such times those who have gone on to a higher 
life are all about one and it is easier to reconcile 
one's self to their going. 

Froidos, November 6th, 1918. 
It is hard to realize that I have been away six- 
teen months, and more. In a way it seems a life 
time and then again it seems only yesterday that 
I walked down that gang plank alone, leaving 
all your dear faces, on the other side of the fences. 
What a world of experience I moved into when I 
walked down that narrow plank. I can see you 
all now as you looked last — and then a blank 
until we were steaming out of the harbor and into 
a glorious horizon of sea and sunset sky. My! 
how small and alone one Mani felt then. I kept 
wondering how I had ever decided to take such a 
large step. Sixteen months and more, holding O 
so much of wondersome joy and, yes, a lot of pain. 
One can't live close to earth without that and, 



THE ST. MIHIEL FRONT 165 

after all, one would not have it otherwise. I 
guess it has made me older than I am. Life 
seems to have fallen all over itself to give me ex- 
periences of every sort and kind and it has all 
come in the last three years. I don't suppose 
many people have the privilege of such a variety 
of happenings in so short a time. 

The peace talk has filled our minds and hearts 
with thoughts of home and family. We hope it 
won't come before it can be one we can fairly ac- 
cept. Nevertheless our plans are already form- 
ing and we can see ourselves sailing into New 
York harbor with a big thrill and a doting family 
waving on the wharf. At that point one gets so 
excited that the only thing to prevent spontane- 
ous combustion is several stiff hours of work and 
a hundred or so gallons of chocolate to make ! Of 
course no one really expects peace at once and 
even after it comes in the form of armistice we 
shall not be released right away. However, the 
home going is in sight, even though the Y has a 
good deal of power over us. I am one, if not the 
oldest, 6f its daughters in France, in time of serv- 
ice, and feel so attached to it that I couldn't go 
back till " it's all over but the shouting." 

Froidos, November 8th, 1918. 
Yesterday afternoon, about three o'clock, a sol- 
dier rushed into the canteen and said a report 
had come to Headquarters that the Germans had 
quit, coming over in four different places along 



166 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

the Front with white flags. Naturally no one 
believed the tale at the time and the poor soldier 
was unmercifully " kidded." However, the re- 
ports continued to come in and the French now 
insist that la gtoerre est finie. Personally I sim- 
ply cannot believe it and a lot of the American 
boys are skeptical too. We have had so many 
false alarms, and it really seems too altogether 
wonderful to be true. We ought to know defi- 
nitely to-day whether it is so. Most of our offi- 
cers feel that it is. 

One of the boys said the other day : " The Ger- 
mans say ' God is with us.' But if He is, He 
sure must be A. W. O. L." (absent without 
leave). 

We have moved our Y into another larger 
stable with more light and have had terrific 
crowds all the time during the past few days. 
Luckily we had moved and were better able to 
handle them in the larger place. Alice and I are 
living with a peasant family, consisting of 
Mother, Father, little Daughter and Grand- 
mother. The little girl is about nine years old 
and is the most beautiful child I have seen in 
France. She looks like a thoroughbred and a 
bit out of place among her family. At night, 
when we come home, she is invariably sitting be- 
fore the huge fireplace. She has thick, wavy 
hair, reaching to her waist, and in the firelight it 
looks like spun gold; one can't help thinking of 
Cinderella. She always sits on a wee stood at 



THE ST. MIHIEL FRONT 167 

one side of the fireplace, with a little bowl of 
bread and milk on her lap. 

These people have been perfectly wonderful to 
us and do everything to make us comfortable. 
After our sojourns in ruined towns, with no 
civilians in them, you can fancy how spoiled and 
pampered we feel. 

As I write, a group of excited soldiers have 
gathered outside. French and Americans are 
calling to each other along the street : " Finish la 
guerre," which is now the one expression they 
know in American French ! Peace rumors con- 
stitute the most devilish propaganda the Boche 
devils can invent and so we must not believe any- 
thing but official announcements. 

Froidos, November 11th, 1918. 

Peace! Peace at last and what a variety of 
emotions it brings with it ! 

In the first place it is almost impossible to be- 
lieve it. After so long it seems incredible that 
the war should ever end ! 

The wonderful news began coming in last night 
and all this morning it has been pouring in 
through every source, the wireless, the telegraph 
and the telephone especially. The wires must 
be fairly bursting with the magnitude of the 
words they carry. 

About noon to-day an authentic report came in 
and at once the American locomotive that goes 
past here up farther front, began blowing its 



168 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

whistle violently and dashing madly up and down 
the track. At the same time the church bells for 
miles around started ringing and our band came 
marching down the village street playing as it 
had never played before. 

In one moment our Y stable was emptied. 
Alice and I stood idle behind our counter, speech- 
lessly looking at each other and trying to take it 
all in. The street outside was jammed with mobs 
of yelling soldiers, crazy with joy. All were 
shooting off their rifles and automatics and shout- 
ing until they were hoarse. 

Somehow I didn't feel like yelling. It all goes 
so deep and the great relief and joy make one 
silent. 

We closed the Canteen and walked home. The 
soldiers were buying up all the champagne and 
other wine in the village for a mammoth celebra- 
tion. 

When we reached our billet, we found our little 
French Madame, her husband and the old grand- 
mother clustered around the kitchen table, their 
heads bowed, crying silently. The French are 
thankful it's over but, with the joy, comes the 
realization of the price that has been paid. This 
little family has given much and all the peace in 
the world cannot make them forget those who 
will never come home. 

Words are useless things at such big times. 
I'm all tangled up and cannot write anything 
consecutive. 



THE ST. MIHIEL FRONT 169 

When we came in to luncheon the officers were 
sending their orderlies for champagne. Hun- 
dred-franc notes were tossed across the table like 
so much paper. Of course we all had to drink to 
the Great Day — altogether a very joyful meal. 

Every American is one broad grin from ear to 
ear. The darkies especially are all teeth and 
gleaming eyeballs. It does one good to be in 
such a happy world. 

As we walked home to-night the moon came 
out from behind the clouds. Just think, it looks 
down, at last, upon a land devoid of strife. Its 
light is no longer a menace and I hope it is cast- 
ing an especial radiance upon the graves up at 
the Front. 

You can't imagine how strange it all seems. 
The night is absolutely still. Great flares illum- 
inate the sky in the direction of the Front, but 
the big guns are quiet. There is not a sound ex- 
cept for an occasional pistol shot now and then, 
fired by some hilarious American. It is all weird 
and incredible. 



CHAPTER VIII 

VEEDUN 

Froidos, November 14th, 1918. 

I wonder how the news affected you all. I im- 
agine much the same as it has every one — a deep 
joy, an infinite relief, but below, through and 
above it all a note of sadness that no happiness 
can quite efface. 

The realization that peace has actually come 
is beginning to filter through, and I have been 
wondering how soon my usefulness, small though 
it is, will be over. Of course it depends largely 
upon how long they keep the boys over here. 
While the Army is here the Y has its work cut 
out for it — infinitely more and harder work than 
when two million lads were fighting day and 
night. Now they will have to be entertained as 
never before. 

This amusing little bit was given me to-day by 
a mischievous doughboy as a sly crack at what 
some of the boys consider to be the doctrines of 
theY: 

I 

My parents told me not to smoke, — 

I don't. 

Nor listen to a naughty joke, — 

I don't. 
170 



VERDUN 171 

They made it clear I mustn't wink 
At pretty girls; or even think 
About intoxicating drink, — 

I don't. 

II 

To flirt or dance is very wrong — 

I don't. 

Wild youths cliase women, wine and song — 

I don't. 

I kiss no girls, not even one, 

I do not know how it is done; 

You wouldn't think I'd have much fun — 

I don't. 

Alice and I are packed and sitting on our bed- 
ding rolls; waiting for the truck that is to move 
us and our belongings to another place. Our 
usefulness here is at an end, as the Replacement 
Camp, to which we were attached, has moved to 
merge itself with several others into an enormous 
affair. This all happened very quickly — over 
night almost, and suddenly our little village is 
an empty and lonely place. We were asked to 
follow along and to open up the new Y for the 
bigger camps, but our regional boss had other 
and better plans for us. We are going further 
Front — about forty kilometers, and we're not a 
little pleased to go into the famous places so re- 
cently the scenes of heavy fighting. Naturally, 
now that the Armistice is signed, there are no 
more bombs, guns, shells, gas — in fact no dan- 
ger at all. The country up there is swarming 
with troops and there is a tremendous need for 



172 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

Y's everywhere at once. We do not expect to stay 
long in any one place. We will doubtless work 
up slowly toward Germany, setting up temporary 
canteens as we go. I understand that some of 
the Y people will go into Germany with the troops 
of occupation. We aren't saying it, even to each 
other, but we are hoping hard that we may be 
among the fortunate ones. 

Verdun, November 18th, 1918. 

We are in perhaps the most famous city of the 
war, up to our ears in work but very well. This 
is a marvelous place and the most interesting yet. 
I have never worked so hard. There is great con- 
gestion of troops and they need food. It's all 
very thrilling — the city the most extraordinary 
ruin, packed full of pathos, atmosphere and color. 
We haven't an idea of how long we shall be here 
— a few days may see us on the move again, per- 
haps to Boche lands, though this is a bit problem- 
atical. In the meantime I don't suppose we have 
ever been as useful and the experience is great. 

British, French and our own boys, ex-prisoners 
in Germany, are pouring' through every day. 
They come in batches. As soon as a batch has 
passed the lines the word comes from the military 
authorities. We women drop whatever may be 
the work of the moment for the infinitely more 
important one of meeting these pathetic beings 
which the Germans are returning to us. They 
are of all degrees. Our own boys, having more 



VEKDUN 173 

recently been captured, show least the signs of 
their privations, although grateful for the little 
we can do. Each boy is given a bundle con- 
taining chocolate, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, a 
New York Herald, but, of all, most eagerly pock- 
eted, are sheets of writing paper. 

Last night I took my chocolate containers — 
and a chance reverend gentleman — to the bar- 
racks filled with released British prisoners and 
spent some hours pouring gallons of the " hot- 
test " down the throats of Tommies, and I can't 
describe the suppressed excitement of these 
gaunt, hollow-eyed boys, all eagerness to help, to 
collect kindling, to open cans, any excuse that 
would give them a glimpse of, if not a word with, 
what for them seemed scarcely a reality, — an 
English-speaking woman. There were no mess- 
kits. These lads had nothing; even their uni- 
forms — could you call them such — were a 
medley of English, German, French, odds and 
ends of civilian clothing, everything. They were 
barely covered and shivering as they came with 
all kinds of impromptu cups and cans to receive 
their chocolate. There was a marked lack of 
greedy shoving, a dignity and quiet gratitude, and 
often a second cup apologetically presented lest 
it be misunderstood and explained as intended 
for a comrade too spent to come himself. I have 
had so many emotions, that at present I have 
reached an absolutely numb state. Really it is 
a hectic life, this, and I begin to wonder anew 



174 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

whether I was ever a civilized human before. 
We have literally worked like dogs, beginning at 
8.30 A. M. and continuing long after dark, and 
even so haven't been able to reach every one. 
To-night we had to close down in the face of 
some four hundred soldiers — all clamoring for 
cigarettes, etc. 

It seems a hopeless job, trying to supply all 
the army. There are six divisions near this city, 
not to mention these prisoners by the thousands 
pouring in all the time. 

Alice and I are the only women here except for 
a lady who arrived last night and who is running 
a mammoth hot chocolate joint at what used to 
be the Verdun station. We three are living in a 
small room, with a roof over it and a fireplace in 
it — the one such remaining in the city. Our 
furniture consists of broken chairs and tables, 
salvaged from the wreckage all about us, and is 
a great conglomeration of elegant, slightly dam- 
aged bits that we have found standing about in 
corners and among piles of ruins. 

At present we have no work so I've been get- 
ting up at the crack of dawn to help one of our 
men fix the coffee and cook the rice and bacon 
which starts thirty Y'ers on their daily round of 
work. You can't imagine the bitter cold, and 
especially at 6 in the morning. I creep out of 
my cot and down the ruined stairs to a well in the 
garden — it's a deep well and I stand and chatter 




THE PROSPECT FOR A CANTEEN ]N THE FINEST 
HOUSE IN TOWN 



VERDUN 17'5 

until the brimming bucket comes up, which con- 
tains our daily supply of water. 

Every morning Alice and I wash in the water 
from our hot water bags — it has generally kept 
a tiny bit of warmth and isn't as icy as the water 
from the well. 

At eight-thirty the Canteen opens and from 
then until dark we are kept hopping. We have 
taken a ruined room, filled it with supplies and 
serve through the broken window to a line of 
boys that stretches down the street for blocks 
and, if it ends, ends somewhere around a corner. 
The extreme cold has made it a bit difficult as we 
are practically out of doors and one gets quite 
numb and unable to wait on the boys as fast 
as is necessary. Luckily at the back of our 
ruined room is a dilapidated fire place where 
rubbish, packing cases, etc., can be burned. Alice 
and I take turns at the window and thaw out at 
intervals by the fire. 

Yesterday an awfully funny thing happened. 
It was very cold. I had been serving at the win- 
dow for some time, so that when my turn came to 
warm myself I was so numb I hardly felt the heat 
at all. I therefore stood as close to the blaze as 
possible, conversing the while with a crowd of 
doughboys who were sitting around. Suddenly 
a strange odor filled the room and we found that 
I had burned off the whole back of my skirt. I 
was so cold I never kneAV it! We almost died 



176 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

laughing, although it was my only uniform skirt. 
I'm still wearing it as the front is perfectly good 
and the back a marvel of patching, the cloth 
being fastened together with adhesive tape from 
a Red Cross kit. 

A day or so ago we were told that two famous 
preachers would join our staif for a few days, as 
they were touring the Front in a Packard car 
and couldn't go back to Paris without seeing Ver- 
dun. Every one was furious — we haven't 
enough food to feed ourselves and no time to 
show sightseers about. Also we needed help in 
the shape of strong hands and willing feet and 
not a pair of " sky pilots " on a Packard car. 

To-day they arrived and have proved the best 
sports imaginable. They are Dr. Maitland Alex- 
ander of Pittsburgh and Dr. Ross Stevenson of 
Princeton. Alice and I put them to work sweep- 
ing out the debris in the canteen and opening 
packing cases, and we've never had such efficient 
help. The Packard car has been used like a 
common truck to cart supplies. As for its own- 
ers, one would never connect these two laborers 
with a pulpit. Dr. Alexander is the rosiest, 
roundest, j oiliest of mortals, has helped me 
cook our unappetizing food, has dosed us all 
with a delicious non-prohibition cough medicine, 
and altogether has won the heart of every one. 

To-morrow he is to be taught prices and will 
help me in the canteen while Alice is to be re- 
leased to fix up a dilapidated room which was 



VERDUN 177 

found to-day as a reading and writing place for 
the boys. 

I've never seen anything like this town. Most 
of it is smashed to pulp, fascinating, in its utter 
ruin, strangely beautiful. The Cathedral is still 
standing, though badly riddled with large shell 
holes, through which the sun streams in round 
shots of golden light. Yesterday they had High 
Mass to celebrate the Armistice. I stepped in for 
a moment, to find the place absolutely packed 
with soldiers, representing almost all the Allied 
armies. The inside of the church is in ruins 
but the outside is still practically intact. As 
I came in, the priests, in their long robes, were 
getting ready to celebrate mass. A number of 
generals and high officials were grouped near the 
altar and behind them, and as far as one could 
see, were masses of varied colored uniforms. 
As the military band struck up the Marseil- 
laise, hundreds of heads were uncovered. I sim- 
ply can't describe it — quite the most stirring 
thing I have seen or heard. The enormous num- 
ber, the place, the music, the winter sunshine 
streaming through the ruins, and at the end the 
Star Spangled Banner! 

Verdun, November 23rd, 1918. 

We are living in primitive fashion. I have 

looked messy in my day but certainly nothing 

like this. It is so bitter cold that we don't dare 

undress at night and we wear the same clothes 



178 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

day and night. Alice and I have donned ghastly 
dark blue shirts, warranted to last weeks without 
washing and without showing the dirt! 

I wish you could see the little room which 
makes up our present home. The New York 
Herald is carefully pasted across the glassless 
window frame, so we are living in comparative 
luxury. The only drawback is that the room 
is about nine by twelve and now four Y ladies 
sleep in it — and also any other females who get 
stranded in Verdun over night. The room is 
actually the only habitable one in the city. 
Therefore it has become a small hotel. The 
floor is generally covered with femmes rolled up 
in borrowed blankets and it makes us feel a bit 
like a tenement house. 

To-night I went down into the underground 
city for dinner. The French are running a regu- 
lar restaurant far below the surface, and, being 
a bit warm, it is jammed. The food is most 
simple, and yet I don't see where they get it. 
The subterranean rooms are marvelous, finished 
in tile and brick, a city so far beneath the ruins 
up topside as to remain unreached by the storm 
which, for more than four years, has broken un- 
ceasingly upon the shattered town above. Aside 
from this descent into the depths, I have seen 
little of the city and none of that circle of its 
guardian forts. However, there isn't time for 
everything. 

Back from chow, and back to the end of the 



VERDUN 179 

day's work, counting the canteen cash, mending 
all the torn bills and pinning them into piles of 
ten. Perhaps you can imagine what becomes of 
scrip and bills which have figured prominently 
in who knows how many crap games, been rolled 
into balls, squeezed in hot hands, thrust into 
pockets, and which come to us in pieces and tat- 
ters. It is the worst money I have ever seen, due 
largely I think to the fact that the Y has become 
noted for accepting any derelict offered, provided 
only it comes torn in no more than two pieces ! 

For some days there have been hanging about 
the reading room several officers of rank and time 
to spare, scowled upon by enlisted men and al- 
ways underfoot. These gentlemen of leisure 
have lately found themselves seated about the 
room lapping gummed paper and with it 
tediously piecing my dirty money together, or 
staggering through the long columns of figures 
constituting the day's remittances from the A. 
E. F. to families and friends at home. The 
doughboys' scowl has melted to a triumphant 
grin at the delectable vision of himself, idle, ob- 
serving his officer at work. 

This reading room of Alice's is really attrac- 
tive. She has pasted papers in the windows, 
cleared out the loose plaster, stuck posters on 
the walls and actually has some flowers on the 
little mantlepiece. She found the flowers in a 
sheltered corner of an old garden. Rough tables 
and chairs have been made and put in, and yes- 



180 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

terday the chief came back from our warehouse 
at Ippecourt with some magazines and a victrola. 
The little room is so packed by day that it seems 
incredible another mortal could squeeze in. Yet, 
at night, somehow it is twice as full. No inch 
of floor is visible. The atmosphere is blue. 
Through the babel of voices and shuffle of feet, the 
victrola is repeating for the thousandth time to- 
day, " Around her neck, she wears a yellow rib- 
bon, — She wears it for her lover who is fur, fur 
away." 

Now for a good night's sleep. At night I put 
on, over my clothes, two sweaters, woolen stock- 
ings, a pair of bed socks and a woolly wrapper. 
My cot is made up with five pairs of blankets and 
my leather-and-fur coat spread over the top! 
Even with all this we get cold. It is freezing 
just now and that penetrating damp sweeps 
through everything. 



CHAPTER IX 

GERMANY 

En Route to Germany, 
December 24th, 1918. 

It seems a strange way to spend Christmas 
Eve. Here we are jolting along, jumping out at 
every station to get a cup of coffee and what 
bread and cheese we can find. However, we are 
having a glorious time. 

In our compartment is an Irish preacher, the 
most amusing and original old duffer you ever 
saw. He says he was a prohibitionist until he 
came to France, but it is very easy to see that he 
isn't one now ! 

We've just passed through Pont-5.-Mousson and 
the landscape takes on the aspect of complete 
and utter devastation. The little villages 
through which we pass are heaps of ruin. The 
few houses that are left standing have been bit- 
ten into by huge shell holes; round chunks have 
been blown out of the walls and roofs and through 
these one sees a vista of country, or a branch or 
two and a patch of sky. It's terribly, horribly 
picturesque in its way, the crumbling stone and 
tile having taken on exquisite tones. Scarcely a 

181 



182 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

human in sight and certainly no women for miles 
and miles. A way back we saw a solitary figure 
standing in his little garden patch. He was look- 
ing pensively at a house — a tipsy looking object 
reeling to one side and gazing back at him from 
hollow, black eyes which once were windows. 
There is something uncanny in the human at- 
titude of these houses. I remember three at Ver- 
dun especially. They looked as if they had been 
hit on every side at once, and in their terror had 
fallen toward each other for moral support; the 
roofs were caved in and not a square yard of the 
walls but what was covered with scars and shell 
holes, and yet there they stand, no one sees quite 
how, unless it be that they hold each other up 
with their shattered frames. 

Later. 

We have crossed the border into Germany. It 
is another land ; instead of desolation and ruin, 
a countryside untouched and unhurt by the hand 
of war. Nothing could look better kept and more 
prosperous than these well-groomed vineyards 
and fertile fields through which we are passing. 
After six months in mutilated northern France, 
it makes one's blood boil to enter this sleek land 
and look upon this people, complacent and com- 
fortable in their guilt. 

Some one certainly stopped the war in the nick 
of time to save their precious skins. Had we but 
been allowed to push on another week, to carry 



GERMANY 183 

the war into Germany and to have given them a 
taste of their own medicine ! 

Army of Occupation, 
Coblenz, Germany, 
December 27th, 1918. 
Actually on the Rhine — and already 
swamped with work. To our surprise we 
weren't stoned or spat at when we arrived. On 
the contrary, every German citizen from the age 
of one to one hundred is laying himself or her- 
self out to be kind to us. The streets are filled 
with a curious though not hostile population. 
Curious indeed — I have never been so stared at 
in all my life; if I stop to speak to any one on 
the street, it is a sign for an immediate gathering 
of all the small fry, not to mention the large. 

The ordinary doughboy is enchanted beyond 
words by this cordial reception and, in a defiant 
tone, talks about the wonderful spirit with which 
Americans have been received. Naturally, any 
one who does a bit of thinking can see through 
any assumed manner of deference and generosity 
on Fritzie's part. I think most of the Y and all 
the officers of the Army of Occupation realize 
that we are up against the most insidious piece 
of propaganda that has ever been launched. It 
really is a serious proposition and one that 
causes, I should suppose, a great deal of anxiety 
in inner circles. It is said that the children in 
the schools are taught daily to do everything in 



184 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

their power to be cordial and kind to the Ameri- 
can soldier, but by no word or act to make him 
feel that Germany is a conquered nation. Thus 
even the children play their part. The grown- 
ups learn the same lesson from various sources, 
chief among them the Church. We understand 
that the sermons are written with this end in 
view. 

An American we know had the experience of 
entering Coblenz before the German army had 
retired and saw it march out, bands playing, 
flags flying, wreaths of roses around the necks of 
the soldiers, the houses decorated with garlands 
and the streets packed with a cheering, joyful 
population, shouting and acclaiming the glorious 
heroes of Germany, namely its unspeakable army. 
Really a most extraordinary point of view. 

As to their false cordiality to us, the Fritzies 
play it well. They work their way into our sol- 
diers' hearts by asking them into their parlors 
(like the spider and the fly) and feeding them 
with German cakes and polite speeches. The 
beer also is cheaper than in France and the towns, 
unlike those in a land devastated by war, are 
clean. Altogether this is " a grand country," 
from the doughboys' point of view. But O, 
they're so pathetically unconscious of the lurking 
evil behind the gilded exterior. Frankly I shall 
be disappointed in our men if they don't wake up. 
It seems incredible that they could forget so soon 
and follow the line of least resistance towards 



GERMANY 185 

a bait of sweets and frothy talk. I hope and 
really believe it won't continue this way. As 
for me, if the Fritzies think they can do any- 
thing by their smirking ways they sure " have 
another think coming." Instead of pleasing me, 
it all makes me so mad that I want to bite them. 
The Y is doing things on an enormous scale. 
It has taken over three hotels here, the mammoth 
Festhalle and many places for canteens, reading 
rooms, officers' clubs, etc. Alice and I have the 
job of getting the Festhalle furnished and in 
shape, and, as the building covers a square block, 
you can imagine the work involved. The Fest- 
halle is to embrace, besides its great halls, a 
library of ten thousand volumes, lecture and 
class rooms, billiard rooms, one wet and one dry 
canteen with kitchens attached, a ball room and 
huge reading and lounge rooms. So we have our 
hands full and have been buying things in large 
quantities, for instance, fifty victrolas, hundreds 
of cups, plates, spoons, pots, pans, etc. Of course 
it is tremendously interesting. Coblenz is to 
be a leave center for the seven divisions that are 
stationed within a radius of fifty mines. Our 
experience at Aix has proved invaluable and 
with such a great and beautiful building, we 
should be able to make it attractive. We hope 
formally to open the Festhalle within a day or 
two, but already it is beginning to look quite at- 
tractive with new easy chairs, lots of potted 
posies and comfortable nooks and corners where 



186 CANTEENING OVEESEAS 

the soldiers can read and write. Mr. Edmunds, 
our old chief at Aix and now head of all leave- 
area work in France, came here yesterday and 
many plans are afoot to establish new leave cen- 
ters in Germany. 

In addition to the Festhalle work, we are 
dragged out to social functions, which must be 
attended, given by different headquarters, divi- 
sions, regiments, etc. 

Coblenz, January 2nd, 1919. 

New Year's day come and gone, with all that it 
generally means of activity in our Y world. 

The chief event of the last few days was an 
important dinner with General Dickman and his 
staff and George W. Perkins and our staff. It 
was a ripper — fine speeches and a broad, splen- 
did program laid out for the Y that ought to do 
a lot for every Yank in Germany. We just can't 
help making good here. Yet so far, we haven't 
really enough workers, though they are stand- 
ing all over the Paris streets fairly weeping, so 
anxious are they to come! The passes are hard 
to get but that will soon be straightened out and 
we will have relief. 

Our Festhalle really looks lovely for to-night. 
We've gotten up a huge masquerade ball for the 
enlisted men, and expect to have fifteen hundred 
of them. It's going to be fine with a fifty-piece 
band, ice cream and cake. We have been on the 
jump, hiring costumes. Dr. Alexander will leave 



GERMANY 187 

his religious activities for the evening and is com- 
ing dressed as a fairy or something equally ap- 
propriate! He weighs two hundred pounds. 

Coblenz, February 1st, 1919. 

The leave-center plans are working out very 
well and the Festhalle is now running nicely. 
As one enters the door there is a large informa- 
tion desk, at which Alice and I have been taking 
turns. We answer, or try to answer, all the 
questions that are put to us by the two thousand 
soldiers who are in on leave each day. One has 
to know the city very thoroughly and just where 
different things can be purchased, where the dif- 
ferent army headquarters are located, the Chief 
Surgeon's office, the dentist, the post office, etc., 
also at what time trains, trolleys and trucks leave 
for a hundred or more small villages near here. 
The boys ask every kind of question. And some- 
times the funniest. Yesterday a serious eyed 
lad leaned across the counter and queried: 
" Say, Miss Y, are you ' information '? " I an- 
swered that I was making a stab at it. " Well 
then, could you tell a feller how to go about mak- 
ing a girl fall in love with him? " 

The soldiers do enjoy their day's leave, I think. 
We have theaters, movies, restaurants, canteens 
and sight-seeing trips for them, and once a week 
a costume dance in the big Festhalle ball room. 
The first dance was attended by some fifteen 
hundred men, though, for girls, there were only 



188 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

a few of us. The nurses are not allowed to 
dance with enlisted men so we other girls work 
overtime on these occasions. Of course we have 
to let the boys cut in on the dances and average 
about fifty partners to each dance, of which there 
are some twenty of an evening. The men all 
wear hob-nailed shoes and you should see my 
bruised ankles! But they do enjoy the dancing 
so much that it is well worth a few bumps and 
bruises. 

All the hotels in town are now managed by 
the Y and have rations from the army. The 
meals are very monotonous but we seem to thrive 
nevertheless — on beef ( horse, the boys call it ) , 
cabbage, potatoes and occasionally another vege- 
table. We hear that there may be some cold 
storage eggs soon. Alice has just paid twelve 
marks for ten eggs to send to one of our girls who 
is ill. 

We are getting Y recruits so slowly and there 
are not nearly enough of us. The work is assum- 
ing mammoth proportions. 

The Y having acquired six fine big boats, the 
sight-seeing trips up the Rhine have begun. Sat- 
urday I went on one of the trips accompanied by 
four hundred and twenty boys. We steamed up 
to the Lorelei and back, taking about six hours 
for the trip. As I was the only girl on the boat, 
I was kept pretty much on the jump. I passed 
cigarettes, chocolate and cookies, and helped 
serve the boys their lunch in the dining saloon. 



GERMANY 189 

The boat is a fine one with large deck space, upon 
which we danced on the way home. The day was 
intensely cold, but very clear and beautiful. 
The vineyards, the medieval castles at every el- 
bow, the sweep of the river, it brought back to 
mind our journey down this very stream leaving 
Germany, 1914, on that special train from 
Munich. How little we realized then what lies 
beneath the smug exterior of the Boche. 

This morning I was on duty as usual at the 
Information Desk and this afternoon went on a 
trip over to the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein with a 
party of about fifty boys, pursued by a moving 
picture man cranking away at his camera. 

The American flag is flying from Ehrenbreit- 
stein's topmost turret ! It will remain there un- 
til the last of our army of occupation leave for 
home. 

Coblenz, March 10th, 1919. 

We have a great number of " Bird men " in 
the Army of Occupation, as there are three Aero- 
squadrons stationed on the hill overlooking the 
city. The aviators are a fine bunch and I 
am lucky in having many friends among 
them. 

The cook belonging to the 94th Squadron is 
my special standby. He has a heart of gold and 
each night when I go home I find small gifts 
tucked into the pocket of my coat — sometimes a 
couple of doughnuts, done up in a piece of news- 



190 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

paper, and, again, an egg or two which he has 
got " off " some German. 

I had charge of the Officers' Club here for a 
few weeks until an older woman could be sent 
up from Paris — and, although it was a nice 
change, the work didn't begin to be as interesting 
as with the enlisted men. I was thankful for my 
few words of German in the management of my 
staff of fourteen servants drawn from the town. 
It was more a management of the Forty Thieves. 
They went off with everything edible on which 
they could lay their hands, those who were women 
hiding their ill gotten gains under their skirts. 
Lard, butter, and white flour were in particular 
favor. This cheerful condition of affairs was 
first discovered by two M. P.'s suspicious of the 
inflated skirts leaving the Club at the end of 
the day, who determined upon investigation and 
caught the culprits red-handed. 

The aviators are very frequent guests at the 
Club, as they have nothing to do up here and time 
hangs heavy on their hands. When they get very 
desperate they do acrobatics in the air and fly 
under the arches of the various bridges on the 
Rhine, causing the square-headed population to 
stare with astonishment. 

One Captain flies down my street and past the 
Club every day by way of good morning, and, as 
he is much too close to the ground for safety, 
my heart is always in my mouth. But it is an 
alluring manner of saying good morning! 



GERMANY 191 

Coblenz, April 21st, 1919. 

The coming- week is going to put every preced- 
ing one in the shade when it comes to being busy. 
Two new and really beautiful huts built on the 
grounds of the royal palace have been opened 
during the past few days. They have been 
christened Liberty Hut and Victory Hut and are 
the most attractive of their kind in the region of 
our army of occupation. Mrs. Lawrence, the 
head of the hut decoration department, has cer- 
tainly done an excellent piece of work. She has 
lovely taste and the color scheme is quite en- 
chanting. " Liberty " is being used for shows, 
dances and athletics and for a huge lounge. 
" Victory " comprises a large cafeteria run on 
very modern methods. 

This week the Third Army is giving a carnival 
consisting of a horse and motor show, aeroplane 
exhibits, and all the usual side shows that go to 
make up our country fairs at home. 

Instead of the usual two thousand men in on 
leave daily we are henceforth to have ten thou- 
sand. All of us are going to be worked to the 
limit of our capacity. The Y is running an extra 
big program this week of concerts, shows, ath- 
letic meets, etc. — it's hard to keep track of every- 
thing going on. I certainly have never been so 
proud of the triangle on my sleeve as I am right 
now. It's rather amazing how much the Y has 
accomplished in recent months — and a bit damp- 
ening to criticism. But all the welfare organi- 



192 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

zations have done wonderfully well and I think 
that the army is, on the whole, very satisfied. 

Coblenz, April 24th, 1919. 

Yesterday at 8 a. m. we " lizzied " out to the 
carnival grounds and were tremendously busy 
there until dark. I was in the refreshment tent 
in charge of one counter, and, being able to speak 
German, was continually explaining details to 
the enormous staff of Mildchens who opened cans, 
made sandwiches and did the heavy work in the 
huge tent adjoining ours. Yet these damsels had 
to be continually sat on, as all they really wanted 
to do was to eat everything in sight and to flirt 
outrageously with the detail of American soldiers 
who were chopping wood. It's sickening how 
some of our boys welcome attention from these 
keg-like creatures. 

We served about seven thousand boys with hot 
dogs (a sausage between two pieces of roll), 
sandwiches, doughnuts, and coffee. 

It was fine working side by side with the other 
welfare organizations. They have all combined 
on this carnival. The K. of C, the Red Cross, 
the Jewish Welfare Board, the Salvation Army 
and the Y were all represented. It's an excel- 
lent thing as coordination has been very badly 
needed. 

Coblenz, April 28th, 1919. 
Though I have never worked so hard I seem to 



GERMANY 193 

be thriving on it as usual. Yesterday we served 
ten thousand men here in three hours and a half.* 
At three o'clock Westy and I jumped out of our 
aprons and into a car and were whirled out to 
Neuwied, the headquarters of the Second Divi- 
sion. There we went to a The Dansant at the 
Y club and at 6.30 were back in Coblenz for a 
dinner-dance given at the Casino by the Second 
Cavalry. Quite some day, yet not too much of 
a one but what I felt fresh as a daisy the next 
morning. I am not quite as busy as that every 
day but I am always on the go twelve hours out 
of the twenty-four. 

There has come finally a revulsion of feeling 
towards the Germans on the part of our boys. 
The Boches begin to see that they are not going 
to get as much out of th« " Fourteen Points " as 
they anticipated and therefore the mask has 
fallen; they no longer conceal their true feel- 
ings and are just " their own sweet selves." It 
is a fearful revelation to some of our trusting 
Sammies and they are mad clear through to find 
that they have been taken in by the German prop- 
aganda. Americans pride themselves on being 
the keenest things going and of course it's hu- 
miliating to find that they are not as bright as 
they supposed they were! 

In some of the towns about here there have 
been riots. Out in the Second Division American 
soldiers and German civilians come to blows on 
all occasions. One marine told me that, when 



194 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

he was on guard, if any " dirty Heinie " dared set 
foot on his beat, he just " walked up and cracked 
him one over the head." 

The other day we had a review for General Lig- 
gett, who has just succeeded General Dickman in 
supreme command here. As the colors were 
borne down the main street, one German civilian 
refused to remove his hat. Naturally it was for- 
cibly removed by several indignant American 
soldiers. The lads are waking up! 

Coblenz, April 30th, 1919. 

The last day of April, and so cold one would 
think it were the middle of January. About a 
month ago the poor little leaves came out with 
a rush, but since then most of the days have been 
freezing and it seems as though spring would 
never come. 

By the first of July most of the divisions that 
made up the original Army of Occupation will be 
headed towards home, I suppose. The Second 
Division, it is rumored, is to receive the four- 
ragdre from the French Army, the highest honor 
which the French bestow upon a division. 

Coblenz, May 1st, 1919. 
Some May day this! It's raining a cold driz- 
zle, enough to dampen the spirits of every one, 
including the Bolsheviki, who have threatened 
to paint the town red to-day. We have a double 
guard of M. P.'s all over the city, but I don't be- 



GERMANY 195 

lieve anything very thrilling will happen. Some 
of the boys tell me that one end of the town is 
hung with red flags, but no one takes much stock 
in such reports. 

I am wondering what people at home think 
about the Italian situation, and whether it is 
true that " America stands solid behind Wilson " 
in that matter, as reported in the papers. 

As to the work here I have never enjoyed it or 
the boys so much. 

Yesterday a tall, handsome Marine asked me if 
I would translate some French letters he had re- 
ceived. The}' proved to be from his fiancee in 
France and he and I did a prodigious amount of 
blushing while I tried to avoid clumsy English 
words that would not express the exquisite 
phraseology. He drank in every word and put 
down certain bits with the English translation, 
that he might use some of them in his next halt- 
ing French letter to her. Imagine not being able 
to read a letter from the girl you're going to 
marry ! I felt such an intruder, and yet he was 
pathetically grateful. 

What wonders some of these French girls are ! 
This one was nothing but a peasant, yet the let- 
ters were beautiful, not only in themselves but in 
the finish of their expression. 

Coblenz, May 23rd, 1919. 
I cabled some days ago, " Work here closing." 
More than that I cannot say, as no one can make 



196 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

any plans until the Peace is signed. Of course, 
if it isn't, everything will doubtless be changed 
again and our troops will go farther into Ger- 
many. In that case no one knows whether the 
Y will be allowed to follow or not, although we 
are hoping it will. 

However, it doesn't seem very probable that 
there will be any trouble. The Boches would 
gain nothing and, I think, are clever enough to 
see that. 

At all events emergency measures have been 
taken. Rations are already issued for the march 
to Berlin and everything is in readiness for the 
alerte, which we are hoping and praying will 
never come. If it should, it will be interesting 
to see this great machine get under way at a 
moment's notice. Of course, the demobilization 
of our forces is temporarily stopped; these last 
troops will not be allowed to leave until relieved 
by others. 

The Y work at Trier is already closed and all 
the Y'ers are being shipped to Paris. When our 
jobs here are over, Alice and I will leave, but 
the Coblenz work will be the last to close. 

Last Saturday I had a wonderful trip to Wies- 
baden. We motored down in about two hours 
and a half. It's strange that, in my many visits 
to Germany, I had never been there. The French 
are using the city for their headquarters, as you 
know, and it was good to see all the familiar 
blue uniforms again. But we were disgusted at 



GERMANY 197 

the amount of fraternizing going on, German 
women even riding in French staff cars. We 
lunched at the Kurhaus, facing those marvelous 
gardens, and spent the afternoon wandering 
through the many attractive shops. German hel- 
mets, sabers and even Iron Crosses were very 
much in evidence in the windows; these rotten 
people would sell their very souls for money; 
nothing seems sacred to them. 

At six o'clock we went to " Faust," which, I 
admit, was beautifully given. We were obliged 
to start for Coblenz after the second act for all 
Y girls have to be home before a certain hour. 
It was a glorious run back. The road winds 
along close to the Rhine and just now the whole 
countryside is a-scent with lilacs; there are 
masses of them everywhere. 

Coblenz, May 30th, 1919. 
(Decoration Day.) 

This morning, bright and early, a few of us got 
together and tied sprays of roses and other flow- 
ers to put on the graves of the soldiers who have 
died since coming into Germany. It has been a 
very warm, cloudless day, and I have never seen 
a more lovely one. 

We motored up to the little cemetery behind 
Fort Alexander on a hill overlooking Coblenz 
and the smiling landscape all about. Such a 
quiet, peaceful spot, tucked away in the corner of 
the woods, and not a sound to break the stillness ! 



198 CANTEENING OVERSEAS 

One hates to think of our boys buried in Ger- 
men soil, and yet, if it must be, a more ideal place 
could not be found. 

Welfare workers were assembled, as well as a 
great crowd of soldiers and officers. The graves 
were soon covered with flowers and flags and then 
we all stood in a large circle waiting for the serv- 
ice to begin. Two or three companies of soldiers 
were marching up the hill, and in a moment they 
appeared around the bend of the road. A mili- 
tary band preceded them, playing the Chopin 
Funeral March. Those strains and the slow- 
measured tread brought back a hundred pictures 
to my mind and the many times, too, I have heard 
those solemn tones during the last two years. 

The service was a short one. At its end, an 
aeroplane sailed close overhead and dropped 
flowers. Then came taps, the saddest and most 
poignantly beautiful notes in all the world. For 
a few moments thereafter an intense silence fell 
upon the crowd. Slowly the soldiers filed out 
and down the winding road and were lost to 
sight. 

Coblenz, June 19th, 1919. 

These last days are very full ones, and, as I 
realize they form the closing chapter of this 
strange and glorious experience, I can't help feel- 
ing a bit sad, much as I did at the end of my 
years at Farmington. 

A verse came into my hands the other day, 



GERMANY 199 

written by a British Y girl but one which sum- 
marizes many of the elements of our own ex- 
perience. I am sending it along: 

CANTEEN " IF " 
If you can hold your cup when all about you 
Are dropping theirs and spilling tea on you, 
If you can give right change when all men doubt you 
And make allowance for their doubting too, 
If you can serve and not get tired of serving 
And, being asked for buns, don't deal out pies; 
If you can weather shocks howe'er unswerving 
And bear with disappointments and good-byes; 

If, giving Self, you don't let Self be master; 
Or, finding pleasure, don't make fun your aim; 
If you can meet with hero and with master, 
And treat the " nut " and navvy just the same ; 
If you can bear to hear the words you've spoken, 
Altered, misquoted and misunderstood; 
Or, see the cups you went to town for, broken, 
And start again to make the losses good; 

If you can make one heap of all the takings 
And get them counted right at close of day ; 
And keep the ledgers from faults and fakings. 
And manage just to make the business pay; 
If you can force your heart and nerve and muscle 
To do their work as long as they're required; 
And keep your temper in the midst of hustle, 
And carry on till nine, however tired; 

If you can serve all sorts and not get hardened. 
And talk with savants and not become a prig; 
If real or fancied wrongs are quickly pardoned; 
If small men count with you as well as big; 
Jf you can meet each unromantic moment 



200 CANTEENING OVEKSEAS ,; 

With willing labor and a smiling face, 

Yours is the hut and every one who's in it, 

And what is more — you will have served the race. 

Life, with all its possibilities, lies ahead. The 
future, with all of you in it, is an infinitely sweet 
promise. Soon, I know, this will seem a dream. 

Before I let it go into the past, forever, I am 
living over each phase of the twenty-four months 
that have gone. There has been so much of 
beauty in them that I don't want to lose and, 
again, a lot of suffering and things belonging to 
the war that are better forgotten. 

I trust I haven't come through it all without 
learning something. I've made a host of mis- 
takes, but I hope I am more of a woman and a 
less selfish one than when I sailed away. 

One can't help but learn to appreciate people 
more, in such an experience as mine has been, 
finding a sympathy and understanding that or- 
dinary life doesn't bring. 

The opportunity has been so great. Looking 
back, I wish I had made more of it, had had 
the strength of ten and that the days and nights 
had been twice as long. 

I will reach you, I hope, not long after this 
letter arrives. The anticipation brings a great 
throb of joy. If you can, do come to meet me 
and stand on the dock just where I left you cen- 
turies — or was it only a moment ago? 

PBINTED IS THB VSTtZO STj^T^S pT AMEBIC^ 



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